CRS Pouts After Its Well-Deserved Spankings

As announced a few days ago, Rick Estridge, the sodomite who occupied a high place at the Catholic Relief Services, has resigned.  He apparently was given quite a "consolation prize" - all from your dollars, be it through governmental grants (your tax dollars at work!) or the in-pew collections.

Zenit has published a statement by Carolyn Woo, president of CRS, on the Estridge debacle.  Read it.  Nowhere does she accept responsibility for harboring someone guilty of flagrant immorality.  Rather, she voices "strong objections" to Lepanto, Church Militant and us bloggers who merely expose their misdeeds.

Today's Vortex takes Woo to task.  I'll also post a link to Church Militant, for today Voris confronted Woo in person; you'll see her scurry away to avoid him in the video on that post.

Donate not one more penny to them.  That beast must be starved to death.

BREAKING - Catholic Relief Service VP In Same Sex Marriage Resigns

Lepanto Institute posted an announcement released by the Catholic Relief Services this afternoon.  Rick Estridge, the Vice President for Overseas Finance at the CRS - and a sodomite in a "same-sex marriage" has resigned his position.  Lepanto has some worthwhile discussion on the matter, as CRS heaped praise upon Estridge as they announced the retirement.

One might ask if CRS's announcement would have sung Estridge's praise had he been a white supremist or involved in drug trafficking. We think not.  Moreover, this resignation would not have taken over a month to have happened.  It would have happened in mid-April when Lepanto first broke the story, at the latest.  Ideally it would have happened much sooner than that, when CRS officials learned of Estridge's perversion and disregard for God's laws concerning marriage.

Please don't take this as a sign that Catholic Relief Services has finally seen the light.  They're in damage-control mode here.  They must have seen a drop in their donations; perhaps the May in-pew collection suffered as a result of their latest scandal.  The number of scandals at Catholic Relief Services is legion, and that number will increase since it's merely an arm of the likewise ill-begotten United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  These beasts need to be starved; donote not one penny to them.

Catholic Relief Services Arrogantly Defends Its Disregard For Jesus' Moral Teachings

The Lepanto Institute reports on an interview between John Burger of Aleteia and Carolyn Woo, president of Catholic Relief Services.  Burger asked her about the many instances where CRS was caught partnering with organizations dealing in abortion, sterilization and contraceptives.  He also touched upon Richard Estridge, the CRS vice president who was exposed as being in a "gay marriage" for two years - and who still retains his position.

In typical progressive fashion, Woo describes as "attacks" our discovery and exposure of CRS derelictions of Catholic duty.  When queried about CRS's squalid association with anti-life organizations, she replie (with my comments in red):

"The type of attacks come in three forms. The first is: Why do we work with other organizations which don’t follow Catholic Church teaching?… So when we have responsibilities for these types of activities, for the scope of these activities, if we don’t reach out to other partners who have coverage of those territories, we are basically leaving a big swath of population unattended. … If we don’t collaborate with other agencies, we are leaving those people without any hospitals or clinics or access to those medications"  Our first concern as Catholics is to save souls.  Any other concern, while important, is secondary and ancillary to the overriding concern for eternal salvation.  There is no indication of any such concern in Woo's remarks.  The activities of CRS, in legitimizing contraception and abortion, may well be leading souls to eternal damnation.

In dealing with the CRS vice president who is in a "same-sex marriage", Woo trips over herself during her verbal tap-dance.  "CRS has a senior person who is in a civil gay marriage, and the question is, Is that a violation of Church teaching?  I just want to say we are working through this."  As I said in a previous post, if the person was found to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, there would be no "question", no "working through this".  He would have been out on his ear in a heartbeat.  If Woo really has to ask if it's a violation of Church teaching, she should be handed her pink slip as well.

Catholic Relief Services is showing itself to be a thinly-disguised front group for all sorts of progressives.  It can be argued that CRS is merely the international version of Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  Both are under the direct control of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The whole apparatus is showing itself to be quite the devil's liar and should be unceremoniously scuttled at once.

CRS In Damage Control Mode Now That It Is Known They've Been Harboring A Sodomite

Yesterday the Lepanto Institute broke the news that a Catholic Relief Services Vice President has been in a same-sex faux-marriage for two years.  Many of us joined the effort to shine the light of truth on that squalid situation.  It seems that Rick Estridge has been with CRS for sixteen years and was promoted to his current position two years ago, during the same month that he and his accomplice in mortal sin made a mockery of marriage.

True to typical CRS fashion, their higher-ups are in full-scale damage control mode.  From the National Catholic Register we read this statement from Tom Price, CRS Senior Manager for Communications: "Rick Estridge has served CRS for 16 years and currently holds the position as our vice president of overseas finance. Rick is in a same-sex civil marriage. At this point, we are in deliberations on this matter."

The "damage control" might be backfiring for that statement itself causes red flags to fly.  To wit:

• I stated in my post yesterday that it is unreasonable to believe that CRS higher-ups, from Carolyn Woo up to the board of directors, did not know all along that Estridge was living in a state of objective mortal sin for at least two years, given his public profiles on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.  As of yesterday, those public profiles were gone as a part of the damage control effort, but prior to that the were available for all to behold.  How can it be that Catholic Relief Services, a self-described adherent to Catholic moral teaching, harbored a sodomite in its midst let alone promoting him?
• Now they are "in deliberations!"  Just how long does it take to be "in deliberation"?  Let's put that question another way: how long would they have to be "in deliberation" if they had discovered that Estridge (or another CRS employee) was a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan?  I'd bet that in that case, the "deliberation" time would have been a lot less than the time that Bishop Bootkowski et al spent in firing Patricia Jannuzzi or the time that the Archdiocese of Washington spent in kicking Father Guarnizo to the curb - and those were lightening-fast "deliberations"!  Mr. Price, why the delay?

Now it could be that they are contemplating the dismissal not only of Estridge but of his superiors who allowed the fetid stench to continue with the blessings of a CRS paycheck.  In fact, they all have betrayed the trust of the Catholic Church.  But I'm sure that's not the case and all we're seeing is a bunch of stone-walling.  The time has long since come to starve this CRS beast.

Catholic Relief Services VP - A Flagrant Sodomite

The Lepanto Institute broke the news that the current Vice President of Overseas Finance for Catholic Relief Services, Rick Estridge, entered into a mockery of marriage with his sodomite accomplice, William Goretsas.  Lepanto has a copy of the Maryland marriage license on their page.  The legal travesty happened over two years ago.  Lepanto also has numerous screen shots from Estridge's Facebook and Linkedin profiles that show Estridge to be, well, "out and proud" regarding his promotion of perversion - and his thumbing of nose at Catholic moral teaching.

The Facebook and Linkedin accounts are deactivated as of today.  Presumably that was done in a lame attempt at damage control.  It appears that he hasn't completely cleaned up his Twitter account. (UPDATE!  That's gone, too!)  We see that he is following both Michelle and Barack Obama as well as Ellen Degeneres.

At any rate, given his rather high-profile flaunting of his mortal sin, no reasonable person can gainsay that Estridge's objectively sinful status wasn't known by the higher-ups inside the Catholic Relief Services.  For over two years, Catholic Relief Services - the same that pretends to uphold Catholic moral teachings - has harbored within its ranks of power a known sodomite.  If the CRS directors have allowed this to fester in their midst for over two years, what does that say about their own loyalty to the Catholic Church and to Jesus Christ Himself?

Will John Rivera (or whoever now occupies the none-too-enviable position of CRS Director of Communications) go all-out into damage control mode as he tried to do three years ago (and miserably flopped)?  What will the leadership of CRS do about this highly-placed official who is flouting Church teaching and contributing to the ongoing lie that is its "mission statement"?  I think we all know the answer to that - zilch, zip, nadda!

I think we also have a glimpse regarding the reason why the upcoming March for Marriage on Saturday the 25th has received so little support from the two Maryland archdiocese.  Yes, a few parishes have heroically promoted this march, but they are few and far between.

It is my opinion that the Catholic Relief Services is jaded beyond repair.  In fact, the same can be said for the entire United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The whole apparatus needs to be dismantled.  In the meantime, do not drop one red cent into any collection that is held for the benefit of CCHD, CRS, Catholic Charities or anything masterminded by the USCCB.