Well, maybe the denizens that skulk through the halls of the USCCB aren't all that clueless, but they're hoping that the majority of Catholics in the pews are. After years of our complaints and bringing evidence of corruption before them and the Catholic populace, the collection dollars for the CCHD are starting to dry up a bit.
So what do the CCHD folks do? They play "shoot the messenger". The Reform CCHD Now Coalition released a well-documented report on the CCHD's 2011-2012 grant recipients. The national CCHD office sent a memo to its field offices deriding and dismissing the work done by the Coalition and American Life League. As you read it, you will notice that they offer no specific errors or rebuttals. Why not? Most likely because they cannot! Perhaps they think that if they huff and puff enough, they'll be believed.
The CCHD is Alinskyian in its roots. With that in mind, what else can you expect from them? Again, please do not feed this onerous beast at the collection basket.
Your warning is late. Bishop Soto of the Sacramento Diocese already took up the Catholic Campaign for Human Development campaign in his diocese.
ReplyDeleteI consider the typical parish CCHD collection to be a case of charity fraud. Maybe it's not by the letter of the law but as Catholics we're called to a higher moral standard, aren't we? Why fraud? Because most Catholics mistakenly believe that CCHD is something like Catholic Charities and it's not. Few bishops make any effort to remedy this misunderstanding. I know angry Bishop Soto doesn't.
Traditionally, most of the diocese did their CCHD collections in November. Only recently did they start staggering them. We think part of the reason is to dodge our efforts to educate Catholics as to the real nature of CCHD. In that case, I can only suggest that concerned Catholics do educational efforts in their own dioceses and according to their own collection schedules. The report does list aberrant organizations all over the country; odds are that at least one of them is a local recipient. Even if not, bear in mind that only 25% of the collection stays "local". The greater 75% goes to the national CCHD office, from where the money is doled out everywhere.
DeleteIf Catholics believe that CCHD is similar to Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services, that's because similarities do exist. The latter two organizations are rife with their own serious problems. I'd suggest not donating to any of these three organizations and to donate to a solid seminary, soup kitchen, pregnancy aid center, etc directly.
The decline of traditional Catholicism all began when the Church, foolishly in retrospect, decided to enter the disastrous so called "conciliar" phase of universal church government by allowing each nation's conference of bishops more say in the governance of the Church. The results are sadly plain for all to observe, i.e., the adoption of left wing social, economic, and doctrinal causes which, (apart from an occasional weakly worded opposition to abortion), cause most of the Catholic bishops in the world, especially in Europe and North America, to be indistinguishable for the most part from their radical leftist Anglican bishop brethren.
ReplyDeleteThe Vatican needs to take back control of the Church from these spineless bureaucratic functionaries who exist only to foment rebellion and opposition to the magisterium and the "faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude v.3)
John Fisher