Since 2015, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has provided $270,000 in grants to the Workers’ Center of Central New York (WCCNY), including a $70k grant in CCHD’s last published grant cycle. As of the date this report was published, the CCHD has yet to release this year’s grants list, however WCCNY is still listed on CCHD’s PovertyUSA website as a CCHD-funded group. As such, we are treating it as a funded group until CCHD proves otherwise.
Last year, we reported that WCCNY gave full throated support for rioting and looting on Facebook, saying:
“these riots and lootings are taking back what the masses of working black and brown communities are owed. Riots and protests are necessary tools and we fully support … An injury to one is a injury to all.”
Despite WCCNY’s approval of looting and violence, CCHD is still supporting this organization according to CCHD’s own PovertyUSA website.
Given CCHD’s apparent ongoing support for WCCNY, the Lepanto Institute decided to give the organization another look and discovered that problems run deeper than we previously thought. What we discovered is that WCCNY is an “anchor organization” in a coalition it helped to found, and this coalition is pushing for late term abortions and homosexual activism. We also found recent WCCNY activity involving homosexual activism and promotion of both violence and Marxism.
Every organization receiving a grant from the CCHD is required to sign an agreement regarding the organizations activities, affiliations and conduct. The CCHD grant agreement clearly states in section A. 5.
“Grantee agrees that it will not knowingly participate in any coalition that has as part of its organizational purpose or agenda the promotion of actions in conflict with fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching.”
Having signed the agreement at the time of its application, WCCNY would have known that its involvement with a coalition that acted against Catholic teaching would be a disqualifier. And if CCHD had done its due diligence, it would have known that the coalition membership we’re about to discuss would have been an obstacle to funding.
Furthermore, WCCNY’s awareness of the obligation to refrain from coalitions that acted in a manner antithetical to Catholic teaching extends to a time before it received its first grant. In 2014, the year before WCCNY received its first grant from the CCHD, WCCNY vigorously opposed the discontinued funding of a Portland-based grantee called VOZ Workers Rights Education Project. CCHD denied funding to VOZ due to its membership in a coalition that advocated for homosexual marriage. WCCNY took to social media and called CCHD’s rare enforcement of the grant guidelines “bullying” and a “litmus test over LGBT equality.”
This alone is enough to demonstrate that the CCHD’s “rigorous vetting process” is irreparably broken! Considering that WCCNY called for organizations to have the RIGHT TO VIOLATE CCHD GRANT GUIDELINES and Catholic moral teaching, why would CCHD think WCCNY had any intention of following this very same guideline? As we will demonstrate, WCCNY’s membership in the CNY Solidarity Coalition is a clear violation of the guideline on coalition memberships.
Shortly after President Trump’s election in 2016, WCCNY and the Syracuse Peace Council founded a coalition they called the CNY Solidarity Coalition. The stated purpose of the coalition was to “resist [President Trump’s] new policies.”
Here on CNY Solidarity Coalition’s website WCCNY is clearly identified as both a member and “anchor organization.”
In late 2020, the CNY Solidarity Coalition published a call script for House Representatives to oppose the First Amendment Defense Act and “take a strong stand on protecting LGBT rights.”
In April of 2018, the CNY Solidarity coalition published an action alert in support of New York State Legislature’s “Reproductive Health Act.” This was the infamous bill that disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law, allowing the murder of preborn children at any time in the mother’s womb – even up until birth – and for any reason. This was the same bill for which the needle of the Empire State Building was lit up in pink.
In May of this year, CNY Solidarity Coalition promoted the Syracuse DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group’s “meetup” which planned a discussion on both Marxism and transgender activism as well as fundraising for the New York Abortion Fund.
Most recently, in September of this year, CNY Solidarity Coalition promoted and supported a rally for Planned Parenthood, specifically for the defense of its abortion business.
Given WCCNY’s assistance in founding the CNY Solidarity Coalition, and its ongoing membership in it as an “anchor organization,” it really is no wonder that WCCNY was upset with CCHD’s coalition guidelines, rarely enforced as they are..
That said, WCCNY’s violations of CCHD guidelines is not limited to a coalition membership. Many of its own activities are clearly directed at the promotion of homosexual activism, Marxist revolution, and more.
In 2016, for instance, WCCNY tabled an event at Nottingham High School, blatantly promoting homosexual activism and violent revolutionary extremism.
This photo, taken from WCCNY’s own Facebook feed in December of 2016 provides an overview of their display. The raised, clenched fist (which is in the very logo of WCCNY) is enough to illustrate the organization’s disposition for Marxist revolution.
This close up photo displays homosexual activism flags with logos such as “I love my husband,” “Long Life (sic) the LGBT.” But more disturbing is the promotion of the militant Palestinian “freedom fighter” and airplane hijacker Leila Khaled (circled in yellow) and the violent Zapatista Marxist revolutionary, Comandanta Ramona (circled in red). For background on Khaled’s violent militancy, click here. For background on Ramona’s violent overthrow of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, click here.
In June of 2015, WCCNY participated in the Syracuse Gay Pride parade to promote itself with t-shirts as well as “support the LGBT community.”
More recently, on June 16, 2020, WCCNY took to Facebook to continue its support of homosexual activism, celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to include homosexuality and transgenderism in the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
In addition to WCCNY’s active support for homosexuality and militant Marxist revolutionaries, it also has strong ties to the socialist network in New York. WCCNY is an active partner with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and active participant in the Marxist movement.
Some examples:
This June 2015 Facebook post shows WCCNY giving a class and Karl Marx is clearly shown in its lesson materials.
This July 2020 Facebook announcement by WCCNY promotes DSA activities –
Even more troubling is this 2016 article from the Marxist revolutionary news site Workers World titled “On the Campaign Road to Revolution.” This article details a campaign meeting of Monica Moorehead, the Marxist Worker World Party presidential candidate, clearly stating that the meeting was about the “path to socialism.” In accordance with this theme, WCCNY is identified as a participant in the meeting, helping to “explore strategy and theory on how to move forward.”
Given WCCNY’s active support for the LGBT agenda and Marxism, and its involvement in a coalition that aggressively advocates for homosexuality and abortion, it should come as no surprise that WCCNY’s involvement with this meeting included the same. According to the article:
Moorehead emphasized that the path to socialism must be based on building broad solidarity and unity with struggles like #NoDAPL in Standing Rock, N.D.; the rebellions in Charlotte, N.C., Baltimore and Milwaukee against police terror; and the continuing struggle against deportations of migrant workers and families. She noted this solidarity must include fighting LGBTQ oppression, like the struggle against HB2, the anti-trans, anti-worker hate law in North Carolina.
WCCNY, while receiving funding from the CCHD, employed socialist and homosexual activist Nikeeta Slade. Slade died earlier this year, and in a published eulogy, the Syracuse DSA said “she was a proud Black, queer socialist-feminist organizer” who was a “former organizer with the Workers’ Center of CNY. The eulogy emphasized Slade’s belief that “we must overthrow capitalism … heteropatriarchy, and all oppression.”
All the above information was publicly available for CCHD to find on WCCNY websites, social media and coalition member sites. CCHD’s so called “rigorous vetting process” is an absolute disgrace.
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
A national expose’ of this the CCHD is absolutely necessary ASAP. You should contact Church Militant and other similar activities. Catholics need to build its own network of connected pro-Carholic organizations and a national clearing house for reaction to this unChristian, anti-Catholic MARXIST-Frankist activity.
There are a number of Catholic organizations that provide social services and assistance without all the leftist baggage. I see no reason why an organization as large and broad based as the Catholic Church should be associated with activist political groups whose objectives are antithetical to Catholic beliefs. For this reason, I have not donated to the Campaign for Human Development for over a decade nor do I support local diocesan projects of questionable character.
“all men are created equal” (not born equal) in sovereign personhood. Sovereign personhood does not define male, female, LGBTQ, Caucasion, Asian, African. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Truth does define sovereign personhood. Sovereign personhood is the image and likeness of The Supreme Sovereign Being in mankind.
Sovereign persons who live under tyrants are slaves. Sovereign persons who live under monarchs are subjects. Sovereign persons who constitute their own government are the only truly free sovereign persons.
Good with you up until the “constitute their own governments” part. Methinks we now live, in our democracies, under the rule of beaureaucrats. Frankly, there was more induvidual freedom under the Feudal System! The burden of taxation imposed by the Lord of an area was lower than modern tax rates. And the local Lord kept his nose out of your affairs, for the most part. Bureaucrats are far more controlling than feudal lords ever were!!!