The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), annually provides anywhere from $9 million to $15 million to political agitation groups every year. For fiscal year 2018-2019, the CCHD issued a total of $11,587,939 in grant money to such organizations.
The problem is that every year, despite constant denials, promises, and even an entire campaign of “review and renewal,” many of the organizations the CCHD funds undermine Church teaching. Time and again, CCHD has given grants to organizations that promote abortion, homosexuality, Marxism, or heresy, or they are members of coalitions that do these things, or their leadership is involved in them. And this last grant cycle is no different.
We’ve already published four reports on organizations from this grant cycle. Earlier this year, we published a report exposing a $750,000 grant given to the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN). ISN actively promotes homosexual perversions, including transgenderism. The CCHD issued a response to our report, defending both the grant and the perverse activities of ISN. We also recently published a report on $25,000 granted by the CCHD to Just Economics, an organization found to be pushing homosexual activism, and a report showing the personnel problems at three CCHD granted organizations.
Clearly CCHD’s “rigorous” screening policy is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Rotten-to-the-core organizations continue to receive funding year after year; funds taken directly from the wallets of the faithful in the pews.
Another case in point – VOICE-Buffalo Inc. This organization received funding from the CCHD over a period of nine grant cycles, from 2007-2019, for a total of $380,000 dollars, including a grant for $65,000 during the most recent 2018-2019 grant cycle. This means that CCHD has utterly MISSED the serious problems with Voice-Buffalo for nine separate screening processes, five of which happened after the supposed “review and renewal” of the CCHD.
Here is what CCHD missed:
Leadership
VOICE Buffalo’s Fund Development Chair Harry Grace supports Planned Parenthood and homosexual activism. According to his bio on the VOICE-Buffalo website, “Father” Harry Grace is a retired Episcopal “priest” who is “involved in community action, after the pattern of Sol [sic] Alinsky, to provoke change for social justice.”
His facebook page clearly identifies him as the Fund Developer for VOICE, so we know this account belongs to the same person.
On June 11, 2019, Harry Grace posted a fundraising appeal on Facebook for Planned Parenthood, bearing the hash-tag, “Stop the Bans.” This hashtag was specifically in relation to the legislative bans on abortion that have been on the rise in the United States for the last couple of years, indicating that Grace’s support is not merely for STI testing or contraception.
On June 12 of this year, Grace publicly called for the legalization of the commoditization of children through surrogacy for active homosexual couples to be able to have children of their own.
And in case it wasn’t already clear, on July 5 of this year, Grace announced that he is an “ally” of sexual perversion.
VOICE Buffalo’s Internal Organizer is Leslie Nickerson. Her facebook profile also indicates that she works for VOICE Buffalo, so we can confirm that this is the same person.
On December 21, 2018 Nickerson updater her Facebook cover photo with a photograph of a pentagram, red candles, and an occult fertility symbol in celebration of the winter solstice.
On June 3 of this year, she posted her support for transsexual activism.
As we pointed out in our last report, personnel is policy. VOICE-Buffalo is an instructive case in point as it is in direct violation of CCHD grant guidelines both for coalition memberships as well as direct action.
Coalition memberships
The CCHD review process and grants agreement states that the “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.” VOICE-Buffalo is an organizational member of two such coalitions that directly violate church teaching on abortion and homosexuality.
VOICE-Buffalo is a member of Open Buffalo, a coalition that helped plan homosexual activism and co-sponsored the pro-abortion Women’s march in Buffalo.
Open Buffalo used the memorial of the Orlando Pulse club shooting to help run an event that promoted homosexual activism. A full video of the event can be seen here: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKztvcE0CR8
Open Buffalo also co-sponsored the pro-abortion Buffalo Women’s March that featured a speaker from Planned Parenthood.
VOICE-Buffalo is also an organizational member of the WNY Peace Center.
WNY Peace Center states that all the issues it pushes via taskforces, including abortion and homosexuality, are interconnected: “While our nine taskforces focus on issue areas such as Gender Justice, Racial Justice, Prisoners’ Rights, Immigrant & Refugee Justice, Resist Militarism!, etc., we stress the interconnectedness of our issues, Uniting in the Struggle and Movement-Building.” (emphasis added, source: //wnypeace.org/wp/about/history/)
WNY Peace Center has a “Gender Justice” task force that promotes homosexual activism, donating to Planned Parenthood and boasts about a picture of a “uterus giving the finger.”
WNY Peace Center also promoted a Planned Parenthood rally as well as an event in support of abortion.
As VOICE-Buffalo is a member of two separate coalitions promoting moral evil, it is in direct violation of CCHD grants guidelines concerning coalition memberships and MUST be defunded immediately!
Direct action
VOICE-Buffalo’s violations go beyond just coalition memberships as VOICE-Buffalo has directly participated in the promotion of homosexuality. Direct promotion of moral evils such as Homosexual activism are a violation of CCHD grant guidelines. CCHD states, “Organizations that receive CCHD funds must not participate in or promote activities that contradict the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church. Organizations that support or promote, for example, capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, racism, war, discrimination, or same-sex marriage are not eligible for CCHD funding.”
This tweet from 2018 shows VOICE-Buffalo’s support for homosexual activism.
As does this Facebook post from June 3, 2018, which has the gall to overlay the words of St. Paul over a homosexual pride rainbow:
VOICE-Buffalo is a clear-cut case of an organization that should be defunded and never should have been funded in the first place. Yet, somehow, this organization made it through CCHD’s “rigorous” screening process NINE TIMES! There is no excuse for this.
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. For a complete listing of bishops and their addresses, click here.
CCHD NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Main Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3210
Fax Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3329
Main Email . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]
Ralph McCloud Director: 202-541-3367 [email protected]
Lydia Jiles Grants Administrator: 202-541-3210 [email protected]
My diocese does not promote CCHD. There no donation envelope in my box of collection envelopes. I’m ok, then?