Regarding the comment by HomeschoolNfpDad to contribute to “authentic Christian groups” – I highly recommend doing your homework before contributing to any non-profit, Catholic-Christian or otherwise.

In the past I have used http://www.CharityNavigator.org which rates charities “by evaluating two broad areas of financial health, their organizational efficiency and their organizational capacity.” Their ratings “show givers how efficiently a charity will use their support today, and to what extent the charities are growing their programs and services over time.”

Charity Navigator uses a star system (e.g., Food for the Poor receives 4 stars – exceptional, its highest rating). We stopped giving to Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund because at 2 stars (need improvement), it “meets or nearly meets industry standards but underperforms most charities in its Cause.” We suspected inefficient management when we got the Fund’s 2-page letter sent in an 9×12 envelop at first-class postal rate.

Reflecting on authentic sources of news and wise stewards of contributions, we do well to remember Jesus’ caution: be as innocent as doves, but as wise as serpents.

It’s not that all the organizations on those special envelopes are bad. Some certainly are unworthy of any support by Catholics. But many are perfectly worthy. However, I know there are dozens of unrepresented groups that, in my opinion, are shortchanged because of the inertia of the parish. We should be scrubbing those envelopes on an annual basis to eliminate all organizations that fail to boldly and openly declare their orthodoxy — and to back it up with their actions. We are not yet at the stage where faithful Catholic groups must go underground, so anybody who is hesitant to declare their mission openly without hedging on the Big Issues — well, in my book they’re out.

We need to require courage of the organizations we support.

Support your local parishes and bishops. Hold them accountable when need be and follow “goral’s” recommendation above and do all you can to see to it that anti-Catholic, Catholic-lite and “liberal Catholic” entities do not get our faithful dollars and they will go away in time.

Be patient. The devil is and we know he will not win so we have to beat him at his own game.

In all, it’s painfully obvious that while our Bishops share in the charism of infallibility gifted to the Church’s Magisterium, individuals like Mr. Kmiec and Mr. Spence do not, even though they evidently think they do. We do need to pray for and support our Bishops and their coworkers, the priests and deacons. They bear primary responsibility for transmitting the Faith. If they do their jobs, everything else will fall in line. They bear heavy responsibility and need our support.

Enter websites such as this one with material of which the pope himself would approve. We now have a quick way to get facts, to share information, to refute propaganda of the catholic left which has benn in charge of taking the Church down scandal street.

The best way to ruin that would be to stamp a USCCB seal of approval on these sites. The great and esteemed Shepherds Burke and Chaput and others are exceptions.

Let’s starve financially those who play loose with the truth.