Recently, the Lepanto Institute detailed activities and memberships of three Nashville-based organizations funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) that violate both Catholic teaching and the CCHD’s own grant guidelines. We followed up with a second report, even worse than the first, detailing a CCHD grantee actively partnering with and promoting Planned Parenthood. We have yet to receive an official response regarding these reports.
Further research shows that a FIFTH Tennessee based CCHD grantee, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM), is in direct violation of CCHD’s grant guidelines. We have direct evidence that prove SOCM is a “community partner” of Planned Parenthood, raises money cooperatively with Planned Parenthood, and is a participant in the promotion of abortion and homosexual activism in its coalition work and across its social media platforms.
What makes this situation completely inexcusable is that SOCM was reported to the CCHD by the Reform CCHD Now coalition for some of the very same violations in 2012!
However, since being reported for breaking CCHD grant guidelines, the CCHD has instead REWARDED SOCM with praise for their environmental work in 2014, and then an additional $150,000 over three grant cycles starting in 2017 and continuing through the most recently published grantee list. All told, since 2011, SOCM has received $215,000 in Catholic funds.
Last week, we showed that CCHD grantee Workers’ Dignity Project (WDP) was identified as a “community Partner” with Planned Parenthood, in PP’s 2018 Annual Report. Well, WDP wasn’t the only CCHD grantee on the list. SOCM was also identified as a “community partner” of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern Mississippi in the same Annual Report.
And just as WDP’s partnership with Planned Parenthood played out in video collaborations and promotions, SOCM has also publicly collaborated with Planned Parenthood.
In July of 2020, SOCM co-hosted an event with Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi called The East TN People’s State of the State.
This was a cross promotional webinar that included heavy promotion of Planned Parenthood, abortion and homosexual activism.
But SOCM has promoted abortion on its social media platforms as far back as 2015, again showing the absolute failure of CCHD to vet its grantees.
This 2015 Facebook post shows SOCM praising the Nashville Womens march and the insurrectionist breaching of the Tennessee capitol building by Abortion “rights” protestors.
Given SOCM’s partnership with Planned Parenthood, it’s promotion of abortion going back to 2015, and it’s video collaboration with Planned Parenthood, it shouldn’t be surprising that in 2020, SOCM partnered with the heavily pro-abortion Power Together TN as a funding “co-creator” for its 2020 Womens March Tennessee.
The 2020 Womens March was intended to be a cross promotional event featuring as heavy emphasis on abortion and transgender activism.
In addition to partnering with the nation’s largest abortion chain and local abortion activists, SOCM has been heavily involved in the promotion of LGBT activism. This 2016 SOCM Facebook post celebrates SOCM member Hector Black’s homosexuality.
These 2015 and 2017 SOCM facebook posts further promotes the homosexual activism of its members.
More recently SOCM promoted Knoxville’s 2019 pro-abortion Womens March, as well as ran a table there:
As we mentioned at the beginning of this report, this isn’t the first time SOCM was discovered violating CCHD grant guidelines. Nine years ago, Reform CCHD Now showed that in 2012 SOCM was a dues-paying member of Community Shares Tennessee, a partnership of organizations that mutually fundraises and cross promotes member organizations. As a reminder, CCHD strictly forbids grantees from being members of coalitions that are involved in the promotion of anything contrary to Catholic moral teaching. Membership in Community Shares is a step above mere membership since all members pay dues which go toward assisting other members. Planned Parenthood and LGBT activist organizations were also members of Community Shares at the time. This means that SOCM was paying dues to an organization directly promoting and fundraising for Planned Parenthood and other evil organizations.
Incredibly, the CCHD’s response to this information was that “as a member of community shares, (SOCM) does not violate any (Church) teachings.”
Currently, SOCM is still a member of Community Shares Tennessee alongside Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. Community Shares still describes itself as “a federation of Tennessee based non-profits who have joined together to raise money cooperatively.”
Community Shares still regularly promotes Planned Parenthood and abortion. For example, this May 2020 Facebook post from Community Shares highlights Planned Parenthood and calls for “maintaining access to lifesaving reproductive health care like…birth control, abortion, and more.”
These are easy to-find examples of activity by SOCM that should have been found by CCHD’s rigorous screening process. However, somehow SOCM passed through both the screening process as well as any ongoing grant reviews THREE TIMES since 2017.
CCHD has shown itself to be absolutely INCAPABLE of responsibly handling Catholic donations. We have now shown that the entire slate of 2019-2020 CCHD funded national grants for Tennessee are absolutely unworthy of Catholic funding.
We are tired of the lies and empty promises. The CCHD needs to end all operations, IMMEDIATELY. And, to any good bishop reading this, the time to stand up to this is NOW. For the sake of your own souls and the souls of the faithful in your care, end this wicked program once and for all.
It is time to END the Catholic Campaign for Human Development!
Please contact the CCHD and demand answers! Ask them how or why organizations like these ever received a grant and if CCHD will demand Catholic money to be returned for violating CCHD guidelines and Catholic moral/social teaching. Also, contact your bishop and ask them to withdraw completely from the CCHD.
Click here for the contact information for your bishop.
Click here for the name and email address of your diocesan CCHD director.
CCHD NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Ralph McCloud, CCHD Director 202-541-3367 [email protected]
Lydia Jiles, Grants Administrator 202-541-3210 [email protected]
Juan Aranda, Grants Specialist for Area D 202-541-3370 [email protected]
Main Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3210
Fax Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3329
Main Email . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]
Grant Specialists
Area A Ian Mitchell 202-541-3371 [email protected]
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont
Area B Gene Giannotta 202-541-3211 [email protected]
Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin
Area C Randy Keesler 202-541-3369 [email protected]
Alabama, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee , Virgin Islands, Virginia, West Virginia
Area D Juan Aranda 202-541-3370 [email protected]
Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas
Area E Sean Wendlinder 202-541-3212 [email protected]
Alaska, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
I long ago ceased supporting CHD largely on grounds of social concerns because it supported wasteful, ineffective and worthless government projects, generally aimed at getting political support. I am glad to see that I was prescient in this effort and would hope that others would come to realize the facts of this campaign and lobby for its termination.
A while ago, I emailed the Archbishop Allen Vigernon to no avail, and he has since deleted his email address from the Archdiocesen website. With all the recent scandals in the Archdiocese of Detroit, he now has a personal assistant to preview his emails. I still haven’t received any responses from the AOD Financial Manager of the CCHD, nor the Area Grant Specialist for our state.
What really disturbs me is this absolute waste of money when the Catholic Schools are always so hard up for money. As a former Catholic School teacher, I sacrificed so much financially so I could teach at parochial schools for 4 years. To think that all these millions of dollars from hard working parishioners was not used for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, the homeless, or for Catholic schools, especially teachers’ salaries, but rather for the antithesis of Catholic teachings, doctrines, and beliefs. Recently, I received an email from the USCCB asking me to sign a petition regarding the Pro Life issue. I wrote back that it was, “too little, too late.” Then I continued:
Why were they sitting on their hands during the election and not supporting Pro Life President Trump? Why did the Pope support Biden? Why did only a few brave Bishops stand up to Biden and only one Bishop or priest denied him the Holy Eucharist? We all knew where Joe Biden and Harris stood on these issues despite his Catholic upbringing. So now they are trampling over our Constitutional rights with these evil bills. I often feel compelled to leave the Roman Catholic Church for the Orthodox Church, because I can no longer stomach this perverted insanity.
Mary – everything you stated is along the same lines as I have been thinking. I am in the Archdiocese of Santa FE and have written my Archbishop Wester several times since he closed the churches last April (never recv a response). A a listener of Church Militant, I have heard the mess the AOD is in, it is deeply disturbing. Last week the NM legisalature passed an extreme Abortion bill and an Assisted Suicide bill. The archbishop sent out a press release AFTER it passed to the parishioners stating we would need to pray more. Why was this not talked about at mass before the vote by the legislators – why were people not informed. There could have been petitions to sign at mass to send the legislators. It is an extremely upsetting situation, that the church does NOT take a stand on the evil (except for a few) . Our archbishop is more interested in LGBT rights and promoting Illegal immigrants . I too have thought of leaving the church but I pray and look past the evil to Christ who states “I am the way, the truth and the light” God Bless,
I have not given to CCHD for over 15 years. They have never been truly Catholic