Posted on 01/25/2011 6:09:05 AM PST by schmootman
While the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has come under well deserved scrutiny for supporting groups such as ACORN and groups with ties to promoting abortion, CMR has uncovered that Ralph McCloud, while heading the CCHD in 2008, was simultaneously working as a highly placed campaign official for a pro-choice politician seeking to unseat a pro-life politician.
As you likely know, CCHD is the bishops' anti-poverty program which funds community organizing and economic development projects and has been at the center of a number of controversies. Ralph McCloud was named head of the CCHD in November 2007. In his first year as head of the CCHD, according to public records, McCloud also worked as the Treasurer for Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrat Wendy Davis.
Why would the director of the CCHD, during his tenure as head of an ostensibly Catholic institution act as champion and treasurer of a campaign for a pro-abortion politician seeking to oust a pro-life politician? This is the textbook definition of scandal.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's website, "the CCHD fully upholds the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life from conception through natural death." But acting as Treasurer for a pro-choice politician means that every single yard sign, every press release, every brochure or pamphlet of the Davis campaign had Ralph McCloud's name on it. So in short, while heading up the CCHD, McCloud was very publicly working against the stated goals of the organization he oversaw.
Isn't that a bit confusing to Catholics? Isn't that in itself a scandal to the faithful?
McCloud himself labeled questions about another CCHD employee John Carr's commitment to the pro-life cause "very disturbing allegations" which he believed were unfounded. CMR believes it to be equally disturbing that McCloud would work for a campaign garnering donations from Annie's List (a pro-choice PAC), Planned Parenthood and ACORN. So pro-choice was the Davis campaign that in fact, Annie's List, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Davis in 2008 while McCloud worked as Treasurer. The group even gave a spirited endorsement of the pro-choice Davis, who succeeded in defeating her pro-life opponent.
In fact, so vehemently was the abortion industry behind Davis' campaign that they actually broke the law to support it. The Texas Ethics Commission fined the campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood of North Texas' political action committee thousands of dollars for not reporting how much they'd spent in support of Davis' campaign among others.
According to the CCHD guidelines:
“CCHD will not fund groups that are members of coalitions which have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
While McCloud's work for the Davis campaign doesn't directly contradict that guideline, isn't it the least bit contradictory to the intent of the law for the head of the CCHD to publicly work for a pro-choice politician?
CMR believes Ralph McCloud and the CCHD should explain McCloud's actions to Catholics concerned about the sanctity of life. Does the Catholic Campaign for Human Development only care about human development of some while turning it's back on the unborn?
Calls to McCloud and the CCHD were not returned. Bookmark and Share
Posted by matthew archbold at 10:11 AM
The Milwaukee Archdiocese has recently declared bankruptcy yet it continues to fund the Alinsky groups. National CCHD still refuses to publish a list of its grantees for 2009 and 2010. http://www.usccb.org/cchd/grants/index.shtml
My question: "What percentage of Catholics would contribute to CCHD if they knew that their funds were going to pro-death, Democrat-controlled organizations?" My assertion: If a business entity engaged in this kind of "bait and switch" fundraising, it would be subject to criminal prosecution. It seems that our bishops haven't learned a thing from the sex-abuse scandals.
That all depends on what you mean by "Catholic."
A priest friend joked the other day that "ex Catholics are the second largest denomination in the US "
And don't forget, they elected Obama.
Yep! We always have the checks written before Mass, but when we find out the second collection is for CCHD, THAT one goes back in the pocket. Not One Dime.
Nice. Not.
All jokes aside, Catholics, in the proper sense, didn’t elect 0bama. Democrats did. And people who could be mistaken for them. I sure as heck didn’t vote for him. Did you? I voted for OUR weasel, instead. Or, more, appropriately, I voted for Mrs. Palin, and the weasel was unfortunately part of the ticket. ;) Oh, and, if you want to bash Catholics, at least try to bash those who deserve it. The official in question, who was formerly head of the CCHD. By all means, please, bash him verbally all you like. I’m happy to join in. Likewise incidentally, when the collection is announced as going to CCHD, the money returns to mu pocket. Always. I’ll happily fund our parish, and most definitely WANT to give to those in need. But not them, at all.
The CCHD is loaded with far-left democrat operatives who are past and present supporters of pro-abortion dimocrats and often previous democrat staffers.
The John Carr mentioned in this article is a former Hubert Humphrey operative and was a passionate anti-Bush partisan. It was partly under his watch that ACORN received $7 million for political operations supporting far left agendas and abortion. The Catholic bishops naively let these socialist zealots run the store while they pontificate on the requirements of the faithful to oppose abortion and march for life.
Except for the bishop in Scranton who was transferred out because of his vocal stand against the leftist drift of the USCCB and the bishops, these bishops will speak out against abortion in the morning and then be seen wining and dining with abortionists like Pelosi, Kennedy, Biden, Leahy, Kerry, et al. in the evening.
The people like these two CCHB officials are a driving force behind the bishops’ demands for “comprehensive immigration reform” (amnesty). For McCloud and Carr, illegals are a way to more democrat voters. The bishops think the illegals are kindred Catholic souls they need to take care of, not realizing that many if not most illegals are evangelical Protestant, irreligious, or lapsed believers.
A nice snapshot of why dems want illegals in the country - and why they fight traditional religion... Thanks for posting the chart.
I don’t attribute the bishops’ actions to naivete. Nearly all of them are socialists.
What's funny is that my auto-speller suggests "Saul Spindly" when I'm typing that diabolical scumbag's name into the search box.
You heard it here first.
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