Catholic Charities USA has e-mailed an invitation to many people in leadership roles with their organization from across the nation. The purpose of the invitation is to announce a Washington reception, which is scheduled to be held this coming Tuesday, May 5, 2009. It boggled my mind when I read the following text at the bottom of the invitation: “Catholic Charities USA wishes to thank Senator Richard Durbin and Senator Arlen Specter for cosponsoring this event.”
The contact person for the event is Kellyann McClain, Policy Analyst for CCUSA: kmcclain@CatholicCharitiesUSA.org
Perhaps you are not familiar with the senators who have so graciously agreed to cosponsor this event for the high muckety-mucks at Catholic Charities, so allow me to enlighten you.
Senator Richard Durbin is a Democrat from Illinois who has two claims to fame:
He is totally pro-abortion as his personal statement indicates:
Throughout my 20 years as an elected official, I have strived to be a leader in the fight to protect women’s rights. In addition to preserving women’s reproductive rights, I have fought cuts in family planning funding and supported the coverage of contraceptives in health insurance programs….I’ve stood for election more than 12 times in the House and Senate, general and primary, stating my position as pro-choice. So the voters of Illinois know that.
Second and far more egregious is the fact that Senator Durbin is allegedly a Catholic!
Durbin’s fellow sponsor for the CCUSA event is Senator Arlen Specter, the well-known pro-abortion Republican who recently chose to renounce his Republican credentials in favor of becoming a Democrat. He is now an official member and representative of the party with which he has been ideologically aligned for years when it comes to the killing of the innocent preborn.
Astounding news or business as usual at Catholic Charities? One has to suppose that the answer to my question depends on the lens with which one examines Catholic Charities, though this latest alliance makes one wonder if any truly Catholic description of CCUSA could withstand scrutiny. I mean, there is a bit of history involved with the organization.
As we recall with great pain, it was a Catholic Charities office in Richmond, Virginia, that was involved in the acquisition of an abortion for a migrant 16-year-old Guatemalan girl early last year.
In San Francisco in 2008,
A high-level official of the Catholic archdiocese of San Francisco made personal donations to a campaign to promote homosexual “marriage,” it has been revealed. Brian Cahill, the Executive Director of San Francisco Catholic Charities donated US $500.00 to the “No on Proposition 8” campaign …
Three years ago in Boston the press reported,
Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities of Boston have resigned in “outrage” over the Catholic Church’s opposition to homosexual adoption. The Massachusetts bishops are in the midst of a legal battle to have the Catholic Church exempted on grounds of religious freedom from the state law that says homosexuals must be allowed to adopt children.
This last report is good news, since seven board members resigned, but it does beg the question, why were they ever elected in the first place? Does someone who is going to work with Catholic Charities have to be a genuine Catholic or is the cafeteria variety preferred? I leave the answer to you.
Perhaps nobody within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has the time to monitor CCUSA these days, though Bishop Michael Driscoll of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho, is CCUSA’s episcopal liaison.
On the other hand, could this latest CCUSA activity be but another example of the confusion Catholics in America are feeling these days? It is getting, after all, harder every day to know who is committed to Catholic teaching versus those who use the name ID, but undermine the name by actions that are the antithesis of everything Catholic.
CCUSA’s most recent announcement/invitation certainly provokes more than a slight concern on my part and I hope it troubles others as well. It certainly should because, for one thing, the mission statement of Catholic Charities USA makes the statement:
The mission of Catholic Charities USA is to exercise leadership in assisting its membership, particularly the diocesan Catholic Charities agencies and supporting group members, in their mission of service, advocacy and convening.
Obviously in order to be of service to the less fortunate, to advocate for their well being and to convene Catholics of like mind for the purpose of advancing charitable acts, any practicing Catholic should recognize that among all those acts, working to protect the innocent from the tragic outcome of abortion has to be number one on the list. There is never a reason to murder an innocent human person, born or preborn.
As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops pointed out in their 1998 statement, “Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics“:
[A]bortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human life and dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental good and the condition of all others. Abortion, the deliberate killing of a human being before birth, is never morally acceptable and must always be opposed.
Therefore, it is eminently logical to conclude that the last thing Catholic Charities USA would want to do is align itself, regardless of the event, the location or the perceived worldly credibility, with any United States senator who, not only does not concur in Catholic teaching, but also strives relentlessly to oppose it.
Catholic Charities USA, in collaborating with two avowed pro-abortion United States Senators for the purpose of “hosting its leadership from across the nation as they join with members of Congress and their staff” are sending a message to America that is not only egregiously off the mark, but unfitting for any entity that uses the description Catholic!
For shame, Catholic Charities USA!
If you want to register your comments on the matter, please contact the following:
Rev. Larry Snyder; President of Catholic Charities USA; info@catholiccharitiesusa.org
Phone: (703) 549-1390
Fax: (703) 549-1656
Kellyann McClain: kmcclain@CatholicCharitiesUSA.org
Most Rev. Michael Patrick Driscoll, M.S.W., D.D., through his secretary, Barbara Bird, bbird@rcdb.org
