Alinsky Infiltrates the Church

From True North

As an optimist, I have a glimmer of hope that liberals will someday see the error of their ways. I’d like nothing more than for democrats to realize that the party they once loved, the party of JFK, is no longer the party that they vote for- wanting them, in effect, to “wake up and smell the coffee.”

It’s also time for those of us who are conservative Catholics to “wake up and smell the coffee” about the Catholic Church.

Just a warning: The coffee is very strong.

The priest scandal is old news. It’s a horrible, black mark on our Church’s soul and will be for years to come. But the pedophilia is not the only issue that Catholics should be concerned about, not the only reason to be outraged at the modern-day Church. We need to look into the financial dealings inside of this religious structure to expose lies, deceit, and actions that are diabolically opposed to what the Church is supposed to represent.

Something, you might say, “ain’t right.”

Unfortunately, we must once again start with Saul Alinsky, the original “community organizer” and a guy who wrote the now infamous book, “Rules for Radicals.”

Alinsky dedicated this book to “Lucifer, the first community organizer.”

That, alone, gives you a pretty good sense of this man.

What you need to know about Alinsky is that he was a radical socialist. He wanted strong revolutionaries to infiltrate cities and take over power from the evil corporations, giving it back to the people. He believed that poor people had to “rise up” and take what belonged to them. He’s been quoted as saying, “To hell with charity. The only thing you’ll get is what you’re strong enough to get.”

OK, so where does this tie in with the Church?

CCHD (The Campaign For Human Development) is a non-profit program run by the Catholic Bishops (USCCB). What isn’t well-known is that CCHD and ACORN are kissing-cousins of sort. Both began at the same time and both are off-shoots of Saul Alinsky’s ideology. CCHD sells itself as a mainstream Christian charity that “addresses the root causes of poverty in America”, but it is actually a funding tool for Alinsky inspired organizations.

You see, when the basket in church comes around and asks parishoners to give money “to the poor”, the money is actually going to support organizations which want to further the communist/socialist agenda in this country. For years, the Catholic Church was funding ACORN through this program, in fact, in the past decade, over $7.3 Million was given to ACORN from the CCHD.

This was money which Catholics believed was going to help the needy.

When ACORN was exposed, the Catholic Church was forced to stop the funding, but they still continue to fund other Alinsky organizations like the Midwest Academy, the Industrial Areas Foundation, PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation.

What do these organizations do?

Alinsky headed up the Industrial Areas Foundation until his death and called it “a school for professional radicals.” It is now run by an ex-seminarian.

The Midwest Academy is run by two Alinsky-taught socialists. According to David Horowitz of the Freedom Center, the academy “teaches radical activists tactics of direct action, targeting, confrontation, and intimidation.” Midwest promotes itself as a school committed to progressive, social change.

PICO was founded in 1972 by a Jesuit priest who was trained in Alinsky techniques. It is a training school for activists. This year PICO has worked with other organizations “to encourage churchgoers to campaign for a government takeover of the nation’s healthcare system.”

Why is the Catholic Church supporting these radical organizations? Former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon, served on the board of the Capital Research Center and wondered the same thing. He complained in the late 1980’s that CCHD was funding “radical left-wing political activism in the United States, rather than traditional types of charities.”

I called the Archdiocese in Minnesota and asked to speak with someone who could tell me where exactly the money they collected in the name of CCHD was going. I was given a woman in the “Social Justice” department. She told me, “Yes, we DO give money to Gamaliel, PICO, and a few others. They do such good work.” As I told her about the “work” these organizations actually do, she hung up on me.

Hmmm….

Just last week we heard rumblings from the Bishops of Los Angeles, Salt Lake, and Arizona, who were opposed to the new immigration law. They called the law, “draconian” and called upon the Administration to “review its impact on civil rights and liberties.” They made it clear that the Administration must include amnesty as a central component of any new law.

Now Nancy Pelosi has come out insisting that bishops and priests “speak from the pulpit” about immigration reform. The same woman who has tried to get God out of every aspect of our lives suddenly wants the help of the Church to advance her amnesty cause.

Hey Nancy, what happened to separation of church and state?

To add salt to the wound, CCHD, along with the Bishops Conference (USCCB) helped to finance and support the “May Day” rally in front of the White House. Both organizations are listed as financial supporters of the radical group CASA de Maryland, an illegal alien support group which helps to facilitate illegals into the Maryland area.

In 2006-2007, CCDH gave $40,000 to CASA. This is money taken directly from the parishoners at Catholic churches, money which is supposed to go “to the poor.”

It is instead used to help illegal immigrants, including those who are violent drug dealers and gang members, march for “their rights.”

Money from Catholics is going to help protest against our own country.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Look into the policies of the Catholic Church and you will find that along with the bishops, SEIU is sitting at the conference table, helping to negotiate Catholic Labor policy.

Honestly.

These same bishops (USCCB) supported the Health Care Bill, despite the fact that it was passed with language that still supported abortion. What happened to their moral fiber?

ACORN, SEIU, CASA, IAF, PICO, DART, the Gamaliel Foundation……..

What’s going on? How did Saul Alinsky and his radicals infiltrate our Church?

And what are we going to do about it now that we know?

Putting our head in the sand in the name of “being a good Catholic” will not solve the problem. We need to stand up to the corruption and demand to know why our Church has succumbed to the evil of a man who dedicated his book to Lucifer. We need to know how a Church, which professes to stand for “Life” can support organizations which are so-far Left that they support infanticide and other Maoist tactics.

We need to know.

And we need to educate others.

We ask liberals to wake up.

It’s time that we wake up, too.

Reports of CCHD Malfeasance Sent Directly to Bishops Before Upcoming Meeting

The coalition working to reform the U.S Catholic bishops' anti-poverty organization, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, has sent each American bishop and diocesan pro-life director in the U.S., detailed reports on the continuing corrupt and radically leftist purposes of many CCHD grantees.

Compiled by Michael Hichborn of American Life League (ALL) and Robert Gasper of Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), the reports show that almost 50 grantees still receiving funds from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development remain involved in activities directly opposed to Catholic moral and social teachings.

"We wanted to make sure every bishop can review the facts for himself, because we still hear people saying that all of the problems with the CCHD have been fixed. But we can prove that such claims are not true," said Hichborn, ALL's senior researcher. "We believe that our bishops are doing the best they can with the information they have. We just want to make sure that they have the most up-to-date information as they go into their June meeting."

RCN noted that, during the U.S. bishops' upcoming meeting (June 11-13), the CCHD will be discussed in light of a report recently compiled by Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh diocese.

"Good things have started to happen with the CCHD, and there appears to be momentum toward real reform," said Gasper, president of BVM. "It has become clear that the problems can't be solved merely by defunding individual groups that have been identified as opposing Church teaching. This is why we continue to respectfully call for a complete reform of the CCHD."

"We simply ask our bishops to prayerfully review the information presented, considering how such systemic problems occurred and what the most prudent way forward is for the CCHD," said Stephen Phelan, communications manager for RCN member Human Life International.

Coalition of Catholic Groups Calls for Massive Reform of U.S. Bishops' Social Justice Arm

From LifeSiteNews.com
By Patrick B. Craine

A new coalition of Catholic pro-life organizations is calling for a massive reform of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and urging Catholics to boycott the upcoming November collection.

The CCHD is the domestic social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and focuses on supporting groups that work in community organizing. They have been accused over many years of supporting radical left-wing groups who advocate a distorted un-Catholic view of social justice. The organization primarily raises funds through an annual nationwide parish collection, this year scheduled for November 22nd.

Scandal erupted in the U.S. Church last year over the CCHD's funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a liberal network of local community activism groups. At least two dioceses, in fact, opted not to take up the collection last fall. The CCHD, which has given ACORN millions of dollars in the last ten years, cut their funding last year based on reports of embezzlement within the organization. In recent weeks, several ACORN offices were caught condoning child prostitution and sex trafficking in a series of videotaped sting operations conducted by veteran pro-life investigators.

The new pro-life coalition, which includes Human Life International (HLI), American Life League (ALL), and the new Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), was formed following a report released in August by BVM which revealed that the CCHD was funding at least four groups that promote abortion, contraception, same-sex 'marriage', and even legalized prostitution. The report also listed numerous groups that are advocating the current proposal for health care reform without prejudice to its funding of abortion.

After LifeSiteNews.com presented the report to CCHD last month, Director Ralph McCloud responded that he was "shocked" and that they were taking "decisive action." He indicated that they had already defunded two groups and were still investigating the two others.

On October 2nd, Bishop Roger P. Morin, CCHD Chairman, issued a memo to the U.S. bishops as a response to BVM's report. Morin says that CCHD had defunded the Chinese Progressive Association and Young Worker's United (YWU), both San Francisco-based groups that advocate same-sex "marriage" and abortion.

The two other groups - LACAN and the Women's Community Revitalization Project - said Morin, "were investigated and, in consultation with the local dioceses, the charges proved to be inaccurate or a misunderstanding had occurred."

"These firm actions are consistent with CCHD's policies and practices, which deny funding to groups that take positions contrary to Catholic teaching," he insisted.

BVM responded on October 8, saying that "After carefully and prayerfully considering Bishop Morin's response to our campaign, we must respectfully state that this response does not satisfactorily address our primary concerns and is factually deficient in several areas."

While Morin claims that the implicated groups had gone against Church teaching "after they were funded," BVM insists that "Young Workers United acted in support of abortion prior to approval to funding," and therefore should not have been funded in the first place.

"Also, the Chinese Progressive Association acted in support of homosexual marriage in 2006, yet still was cleared for funding in subsequent years," they write. "The CCHD must take responsibility for failure in properly screening these groups."

"While we are pleased with the rapid response in defunding both these organizations, the CCHD has yet to address how such organizations made it through the grants process in the first place," they continue. "This is our primary concern. Until the grants process is thoroughly investigated and reformed, the grave risk remains that organizations such as these may be funded in the future."

They go on to challenge Morin to further explain why the other two groups are to still be funded. "LA CAN explicitly promoted contraception and praised the work of its members in support of homosexual marriage in its own newsletter," they write. "Also, in regards to the Womens Community Revitalization Project our charge that this grantee was a coalition partner with the pro-abortion group WomenVote PA is not inaccurate."

LifeSiteNews.com contacted CCHD for comment, but did not hear back by press time.

The coalition is calling the CCHD to a major reform, focused on ensuring grantees' fidelity to Church teaching on social justice, family and life issues. They launched a website yesterday called Reform CCHD Now where they are calling on faithful Catholics to download and print out special coupons to be put in collection baskets on November 22nd.

The coupon states that the person is allocating their CCHD donation to a different group that conforms to Catholic teaching on social justice and issues relating to life and family. They have begun compiling a list of such groups on their website. The coupon indicates further that the person will be willing to continue supporting CCHD only after being assured, through "substantial published research into the funded groups," that these groups do not oppose Church teaching.

The coalition wants an explanation of the CCHD's poor funding practices, "an independent audit of the CCHD grant process with the results published online," and greater vigilance from the organization in evaluating grantees for Church teaching on social justice, life, and family issues.

They are proposing, further, that the CCHD require grantees to sign a statement indicating they will not oppose Church teaching. BVM has said that such a statement should be posted to the websites of both CCHD and the grantee.

The coalition insists that "a complete reform of the CCHD" is needed, "not simply the occasional defunding of a problematic organization, followed by assurances that the problem has been solved, as has been the CCHD's response until now."

"We are trying to shed some light not only on the CCHD, but also on some wonderful organizations that actually serve the poor and disenfranchised in a way that is consistent with Catholic teaching" said Rob Gasper, president of BVM, in a press release. "We just think that faithful Catholics in the pews should be able to trust that the money they give to the CCHD is going to reputable organizations that in no way work against the Church."

"We support without qualification our Catholic bishops," said Stephen Phelan, Communications Manager for Human Life International. "We are confident that many of them will support this call for greater transparency in the CCHD, and to a deep reform in the organization. In this campaign we are asking that the CCHD reconsider its philosophy and practices."

"We respectfully call the CCHD to respond to Pope Benedict's call in his recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, when he challenged development professionals to work towards an authentic, integral human development based on a Catholic view of the human person and in the Love and Truth of Jesus Christ," said Phelan.

Phelan told LSN that he thought CCHD's response to the BVM report was "a real positive thing." "We think that there's enough good potential there for [CCHD] to do great things," he added. "There should be such an arm in the Church, but it should be fixed."

Phelan noted that they have already received requests from several groups to join the coalition, which may be done through the website.