Posted on 05/20/2010 5:59:22 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has pulled out of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition that lobbies against pro-life and pro-family legislation and boasts top pro-abortion and homosexualist groups among its members.
The break was confirmed in a release sent to LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) by Sister Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB Director of Media Relations, on Wednesday afternoon.
The release stated that the bishops withdrew following the group's published support for the pro-abortion and homosexualist Supreme Court nominee, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, which was pointed out earlier this week by Deal Hudson of Catholic Advocate and reported by LSN Tuesday.
In withdrawing from the coalition, the USCCB "reiterated its commitment to oppose discrimination based on race, religion, sex, ethnicity, disabling condition, or age, and said that these are grave injustices and affronts to human dignity."
"In light of recent events, it has become increasingly clear that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ continued membership in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is not possible because of the LCCR’s expanded and broadened agenda," stated Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre NY, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Peace, as quoted in the release.
"The interests of the Leadership Conference and those of the USCCB have diverged as the LCCR has moved beyond advocacy of traditional civil rights to advocacy of positions which do not reflect the principles and policies of the bishops’ Conference."
Murphy did not address explicitly the pro-abortion and homosexualist activities of the coalition, instead saying only that the bishops ended their relationship because LCCHR in recent years "has joined others in advocating or opposing nominees for the Supreme Court, a practice which clearly contradicts USCCB policy and compromises the principled positions of the bishops."
"The USCCB deeply regrets this action has become necessary and pledges to continue our ongoing work on civil rights, racial and ethnic justice, and the protection of human life and dignity," said Murphy.
Deal Hudson told LSN following the release that, "It's a sad fact of politics that organizations originally founded for one purpose undergo changes over time that affect their mission."
"With the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop removing itself from the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights, the bishops have recognized, as Bishop William Murphy put it, 'the LCCR has moved beyond advocacy of traditional civil rights to advocacy of positions which do not reflect the principles and policies of the bishops’ Conference.'"
Hudson concluded: "No one will doubt the ongoing commitment of the Catholic bishops to upholding civil and human rights, but this action was necessary to avoid any confusion about its protection of the most basic human right, the right to life of the not-yet-born."
The bishops need to distance themselves from groups and organizations purporting to support social justice issues.
Well said.
After abortion and malaria, ‘social justice’ (also known as socialism, statism, communism etc) is the biggest killer in human history.
Part of it is that there is an amount of money used by all the USCCB, then a percentage of that fund is given to the individual Bishops. They then choose who get the cash.
So if you take a Bishop like Mahonney,and he gives to an extremely liberal organization, that organization can say that it’s the USCCB giving to them.
It’s a problem.
Good news for the bishops on this!
This is very good news.
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Agreed.
Even when the support is only from one bishop? Our progressive bishop is also involved with social justice individuals and groups. I don't ever recall that distinction being made by any of them. Rather, they claim support from the local bishop.
The USCCB needs to accept the offers from several catholic watchdog groups that have identified these errors in judgment. Deal Hudson brought this one to the attention of the bishops and they acted quickly. Unfortunately, a news article was already published linking them with this organization. They have to get past back peddling and take a more pro-active approach.
>>Even when the support is only from one bishop?<<
Yes. It’s USCCB money given to that Bishop so it is still labeled AS USCCB support.
Do you think that any liberal group would use just one Bishop when they can say “USCCB”?
Michael Voris did a video on a group of horrible organizations supported by the USCCB. When I pointed out that the individual Bishop in the area was given money to distribute and that all the horrible choices in where that money goes were from liberal diocese, my comments were swept from his YouTube channel. People want to demonize the USCCB, especially Michael.
(Nice guy, not so good with facts. A couple of times we called into his radio show here in Detroit and it was like the man was deaf to anything but his own POV.- btw)
>>They have to get past back peddling and take a more pro-active approach.<<
I fully agree there. They need to change the system of giving individual Bishops cash for their causes.
Thanks for the clarification. I see your point.
Excellent!
So did Michael Voris purposely try to copy Bill O’Reilly?
Mother Teresa of Calcutta would often say “we are not social worker.”
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