How the Church abandoned its mandate and outsourced its mission
Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
The Great Commission, which is the primary act and purpose of the Catholic Church, has never changed. The conversion of peoples and nations to the Teachings of Our Blessed Lord is the charge given to the Church, and everything done by the Church is done to this specific end. And anything done without this specific end is empty and without purpose.
Why, therefore, in recent years have the great acts of charity which have always belonged to the Church, been handed over to those who do not seek first the conversion of sinners? Until the 20th century, the Catholic Church had worked through religious orders to provide aid to the poor, health care to the sick, and education to the ignorant. Catholic hospitals were filled with nuns and priests well educated in the healing arts, and the cost of health care was quite low. Catholic school classrooms were led by nuns and priests, and even the poorest kids in the neighborhood could afford a world-class education there. And the care of the world’s poorest was done by missionaries who sought first the salvation of the souls they served, while also working to provide food, housing and clothing … and it didn’t cost billions of dollars to do it.
The first charitable institution to be industrialized was healthcare. One by one, Catholic hospitals went from being staffed by priests and nuns to private doctors with families to house and feed, cars to drive, and college tuitions to pay. As a result, health care costs went up, and the Church’s influence went down. Suddenly, what had been a corporal work of mercy was now an industry.
Catholic education soon took a hit, as nuns and priests were replaced by private teachers and administrators, who also required salaries for their families. And as Catholic education became more of an industry, the influence of the Church declined there as well.
That the works of charity are now an industry is completely undeniable. Catholic charitable organizations compete with other organizations for large government grants, and in the name of helping the poor, executives in these organizations are raking in the cash. For instance, the tax form 990 for fiscal year 2014 for Catholic Charities USA shows the top eight paid employees all making over six figures each. In fact, for working a logged 35 hours per week, Fr. Larry Snyder made $381,080 and his Chief Operating Officer raked in $412,439. That’s two individuals working to help the poor, pulling in nearly half-a-million dollars EACH. All told, with benefits included, the top eight executives at Catholic Charities USA account for $2,027,680.
It’s no different at Catholic Relief Services. The latest tax form 990 shows that CRS’s president, Dr. Carolyn Woo, is earning $445,426 in salary and benefits in order to do “charitable” work. And the obscene salaries paid to the top eight of CRS’s executive leadership comes to $2,180,935. In fact, 27.5% of the Rice Bowl collection for 2014 (see page 18 of CRS’s 2014 Annual Report) paid the salaries and benefits of these eight individuals ALONE. That’s one of every three dollars collected from pew-sitting Catholics across the country going to pay the salaries and benefits of eight people … all in the name of helping the poor.
Worse than executives at Catholic charitable organizations getting rich in the name of helping the poor, much of the actual work is being outsourced to organizations who have no interest in maintaining the integrity of Catholic moral teaching. For example, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development doesn’t actually do ANY of its own work; all it does is dispense grants to community organizing groups (many of whom are acting in direct opposition to Catholic moral teaching) who do the work CCHD claims it does. Catholic Relief Services applies for and obtains large government grants that require it to pass some of the money along to organizations that are attacking the Gospel of Life. In 2012, CRS provided $64.65 million to organizations that are themselves dispensing contraception, committing abortions and performing sterilizations.
And while all of this is going on, the Mandate of the Church has taken a back seat. In September of 2014, CRS’s Vice-President for Government Relations and Advocacy Bill O’Keefe said in a CNN interview, “We assist people of all backgrounds and religions and we do not attempt to engage in discussions of faith.” He added, “We’re proud of that. We like to say that we assist everybody because we’re Catholic, we don’t assist people to become Catholic.” This statement is not dissimilar from what CRS’s Chief Operating Officer Sean Callahan said to Michael Hichborn in a November 2012 meeting. Callahan told Hichborn that CRS works to convert people’s minds to how to treat people and how to do things, but not to the Catholic Faith. When Hichborn reminded Mr. Callahan that Catholics have an obligation to proclaim the Gospel and bring all souls to Christ, his response was to equate feeding people and preaching the Gospel with “bribing the poor.”
We shouldn’t be surprised, however, that the charitable works of the Catholic Church have turned to industry, and thereby abandoned the evangelistic mark of the Church. Pope Paul VI, in his 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, predicted this very thing. In paragraph 32, he said:
We must not ignore the fact that many, even generous Christians who are sensitive to the dramatic questions involved in the problem of liberation, in their wish to commit the Church to the liberation effort are frequently tempted to reduce her mission to the dimensions of a simply temporal project. They would reduce her aims to a man-centered goal; the salvation of which she is the messenger would be reduced to material well-being. Her activity, forgetful of all spiritual and religious preoccupation, would become initiatives of the political or social order. But if this were so, the Church would lose her fundamental meaning. Her message of liberation would no longer have any originality and would easily be open to monopolization and manipulation by ideological systems and political parties. She would have no more authority to proclaim freedom as in the name of God. This is why we have wished to emphasize, in the same address at the opening of the Synod, “the need to restate clearly the specifically religious finality of evangelization. This latter would lose its reason for existence if it were to diverge from the religious axis that guides it: the kingdom of God, before anything else, in its fully theological meaning….”
The meaning of the word “charity” is Love. There is no love in mere philanthropy, and certainly not in an industry masquerading as a charity. As the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen would say, “If souls are not saved, nothing is saved.” CRS, CCHD, and Catholic Charities USA are Catholic in name, but do very little (if anything) to bring souls to Christ. If the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is truly interested in reducing poverty throughout the world, the poverty it must begin with is the poverty of the soul.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVEALING THIS INFORMATION. IT IS VITAL THAT WE KNOW THIS. AND THE QUOTE FROM BLESSED POPE PAUL VI WAS VERY, VERY HELPFUL. DO YOU KNOW OF ANY VERY GOOD CATHOLIC GROUPS THAT IT IS SAFE TO CONTRIBUTE TO?
I’m glad this article is helpful, Father. I always encourage people to support Caritas in Veritate International: http://www.charityintruthint.com/ St. Bryce Missions: stbryce.org/ and Cross Catholic Outreach: http://www.crosscatholic.org/
Caritas has a Strong tie to Coraid of Netherlands which sad to say has extensive funding of pro Abortion BC and Homosexual agenda despite its alleged Catholic in name only status
Ed, and others .. checking out Cordaid (English page) it appears that recipients of project aid need not be Christian, and this gives them scope to back projects that are anti-Christian (or at least anti-Catholic). I was not able to locate projects relating to ‘homosexual’, ‘gender identity’, or ‘trans-gender’, though four hits appear on a search for ‘same sex’. Trouble is, there’s little or no text record to follow. To drill further you have to greatly enlarge their global project map and click on each ‘pin’, then again on the comment to see more. This way I did find that in Malawi they have a Marie-Stopes style ‘reproductive health services’ program for girls ( https://www.cordaid.org/en/projects/reproductive-health-services-for-girls/108774/ ). You see it’s Marie-Sopes by expanding headings like ‘Initial Situation’, and under ‘Project plan’ the ’emergency contraceptive’ is included (an abortifacient). Clearly anti-Catholic.
Further digging found the Cordaid project in Ghana entitled “Young people in charge” ( https://www.cordaid.org/en/projects/young-people-in-charge-san/112072/ ), which purports to deliver CSE (Comprehensive Sexual Education) including SRH (sex and reproductive health) following curricula that were developed by Rutgers: the “World Starts with Me” computer based program and a paper variant (My World My Life). The project write-up is careful to avoid mention of other goals, but it is clear by visiting the Rutgers International site that the Utrecht-based organization is completely at odds with the Catholic faith. One of its poster-children is the proposal to encourage sexualization from kindergarten ( http://www.rutgers.international/news-opinion/news-archive/case-starting-sex-education-kindergarten ), and a search on ‘same sex’ finds enough to show how supportive its community is for same-sex marriage (Holland being the first to legalize it). So if Cordaid or Caritas deny being in this quagmire, ask why they endorse Rutgers, whose ‘scope’ statement includes “We support our partners internationally .. to improve sexual and reproductive health and the acceptance of sexual rights and gender equality in their countries”.
Father David,
If you find any Catholic organization that lists a “Safe to Donate” page please let me know. We would put that on our permanent and repeating tweet streams specially @CatholicsTweet and @911God
Michael, now that’s something to think about for LepantoInstitute.org
You know what I would do with that page for the Catholic world!
You can safely donate to the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. They also run America Needs Fatima and the St. Louis de Montfort Academy in PA. Please donate to them. They are the ONLY fully Catholic organization I know of. They fight for Holy Mother Church as well as fight against abortion and the sodomite agenda. Please see http://www.tfp.org
Catholic Relief Services is one of the biggest offenders of distributing money against Church teachings.
Dear Brethren: I am selective about the Catholic charites that I donate to; my list includes Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Christian Appalacian Mission, and other groups that feed the poor, cloth the naked, etc.
I suggest Catholic Relief Services, Father.
You may want to re-read the article, which is actually very short on details regarding CRS. They’ve been shown (in many other articles – do your own search) to be deeply connected with Planned Parenthood and other anti-Catholic groups.
Read elsewhere on this blog. You are wrong about that.
Just for starters:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-relief-services-helped-run-explicit-sex-ed-program-pushing-abortif
http://ncronline.org/news/politics/bishops-defend-catholic-relief-services-amid-barrage-attacks
http://www.lepantoinstitute.org/crs-changing-body/
http://www.lepantoinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CRS-My-Changing-Body-FINAL.pdf
http://www.all.org/article/index/id/MTI2MjU/
Fr. David, I suggest Catholic Extension (http://www.catholicextension.org/about-us). It has been around since 1905. What I like about it is that I can pinpoint the exact program in which I would like my donation to go, such as support for seminarians, building new churches, paying for a priest’s gas to travel from one remote area to another, sponsoring a church activity, etc. It publishes a beautiful quarterly magazine that highlights outstanding Catholic individuals and programs.
and who will reveal Lepanto’s misappropriations, when the money starts rolling in!!
Im surprised this article comes from Lepanto. This artical seems to have bias. To say our church does no charity, in so many words, is ridiculous. Our mission is to bring the lost to the faith, yes. But charity is giving to any brother in need.
Truth is itself a bias;
Yes, but any charity that does evil along with the good may not be ascribed to without danger of sin. Basic moral teaching says that one may not do evil, no matter how small, to bring about a good, no matter how large….
Give to the Aid to the Church In Need which is a Papal Organization. It is an excellent and good Catholic place to give to. One can check it out also on their web site.
On twitter #YearofMercyWell. Grass root volunteers 🙂
Father, I’m confused. My bank account would be in the negative and I would give my last $50 dollar bill to this organization. How can my $50 dollars possibly make any difference to a starving child when salaries of that magnitude have to ne met?
I’ve got a better Idea.
One that can be directly influenced through our Lord with a simple gesture of charity. Just on my usual ride home, through New Haven, CT.
I see an average of two people a day, holding signs — asking for help. Those people who wouldn’t be standing on those street corners in rain and snow, if they were not in need. Those are people that will receive my help.
Please make all your articles printable so that I may share them with others. The right side of the pages is cut off from printing. Thank you very much.
About 3 months ago I suggested Pinterest and other social media buttons so I could share on social media – but no response, so I wouldn’t hold your breath! Perhaps that’s not the idea of these very interesting articles?!
Hey Scott … It’s on the list. 🙂 Truth be told, I’m not very technically skilled when it comes to web development, so there’s a steep learning curve.
Nancy and Mark,
I had that problem yesterday and discovered that it was because I had the page or text magnified. I simply held down the ctrl key and tapped the “-” (minus key) and could then see the entire text!
Nancy and Mark, all you have to do is highlight the whole article, press “Ctrl + C”, then open a new page in Microsoft Word and press “Ctrl + V”, and you can print the article like any other Word file.
The final cleansing of the Church has begun! Bravo, Lepanto Inst. for bringing truth to light. Do not be discouraged by your critics, the loud and proud or the soft spoken, but press on toward the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ! Expose the wolves in sheep’s clothing! I thank you for your hard work and sincere heart.
I am sharing this on REGINA’s Facebook page — http://www.fb.com/reginamagazine
This issue has got to get to the Pope and we need to hear an answer from him…he confiscated a, I believe, German Cardinal ‘s million dollar mansion and something similar in Atlanta. .pax vobiscum 🙂
Nancy & Mark are right. These well researched articles should be made “Printable” by themselves with no other info to distract the reader and can be passed around.
As an aside—I left the Knights of Columbus for reasons just like those outlined in this article.
While researching the organization I stumbled on a Federal Tax Filing of the Knights showing the highest paid executives–wow
During K of C meetings I’d look at the picture hanging on the wall of the Founder of the Knights, Fr. Michael McGivney, and ask myself: Did he start this organization so it’s Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, could make over a million dollars a year?? And many of the staff down in New Haven could have incomes in the mid six figures??
It really bothered me that a piece of my dues and the insurance premiums went for this purpose—
Don’t get wrong–I know they do some good things—THE POINT IS THEY COULD DO A LOT MORE
Here ya go Cole,
http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/237/237227608/237227608_201312_990.pdf
Carl Anderson made over $2MM on the Dec 2013 IRS filing, while 8 other members made over $200k. Contrast that with our local Catholic radio station network (Guadalupe Radio Network), which brought in more money in contributions, yet the president made a little over $60k in the same year.
It’s disgusting, and one of the reasons I refuse to join the KofC. I love the men in the local chapter at my parish. We volunteer together in teaching faith formation, helping the pro-life ministry, and praying together at Mass. But I would never “join the club” to support such egregious salaries.
Thank you for highlighting the accurate prediction in Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi that all generations of faithful Catholics need to be aware of, and sadly are NOT aware of and continue to support or ignore, as our “progressive” dioceses pursue (& define) the New Evangelization:
“We shouldn’t be surprised, however, that the charitable works of the Catholic Church have turned to industry, and thereby abandoned the evangelistic mark of the Church. Pope Paul VI, in his 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, predicted this very thing. In paragraph 32, he said: We must not ignore the fact that many, even generous Christians who are sensitive to the dramatic questions involved in the problem of liberation, in their wish to commit the Church to the liberation effort are frequently tempted to reduce her mission to the dimensions of a simply temporal project. They would reduce her aims to a man-centered goal; the salvation of which she is the messenger would be reduced to material well-being. Her activity, forgetful of all spiritual and religious preoccupation, would become initiatives of the political or social order. But if this were so, the Church would lose her fundamental meaning. Her message of liberation would no longer have any originality and would easily be open to monopolization and manipulation by ideological systems and political parties. She would have no more authority to proclaim freedom as in the name of God. This is why we have wished to emphasize, in the same address at the opening of the Synod, “the need to restate clearly the specifically religious finality of evangelization. This latter would lose its reason for existence if it were to diverge from the religious axis that guides it: the kingdom of God, before anything else, in its fully theological meaning….”
Thanks, Matt. Your response makes me think of those who make a living promoting the as-of-yet unapproved-by-the-Church Marian apparitions, i.e. Medjugorje (sp?). Certainly a spiritual work of mercy that had brought many to the Church and solidified the faith of others. Inadvertently, I found out that some in the Church are very disapproving of those Catholics who even mention Medjugorje because the Vatican has not approved the apparitions. A particularly devout Catholic friend I have invited to a Fatima Workshop I am running this weekend will not come because the priest speaking at the workshop has been to Medjugorje, regardless of any other redeeming credentials he carries!, This seems to be an area you would have some expertise in. Thanks for your response, God bless you for all you do!
There used to be more young people listening and answering the call to serve in religious orders . Thus there were many workers to serve in our catholic charities. However nowadays many things compete for our youngsters attention. they rarely hear The Lord. So there are less chances for the young to answer their vocations and now we have to hire lay people to continue the job or we may have to close those institutions altogether. But I think the Church should make an effort to hire people who are willing to take these posts for less money
How about you? We all are called.
The reality is they have to get paid to do the job, but not some of those figures. I’ve cooked for different Catholic Charity locations through the years and we know they do good work and help many people but they can always do better.
When I was asked to take the ” Stop Abortion” sign off my walker because I may offend somebody I knew there was a problem in general with the system and some people in charge.
They get into a habit of always being in need to help those in need and loose their perspective and true mission in doing it for so long. Maybe they all need to change things up every few years and not keep the same position forever. Prayers are greatly needed.
Bill Clinton said so well, “it all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”. The Church has all but and probably has merged with the Democratic Party in search of “social justice”. Morality has become secondary if necessary at all. Once AB Raymond Burke was run out of St. Louis in a cabal orchestrated by the Vatican (emails from chancery are proof) just before the 2008 election, you had to know that the fix was in. Malachi Martin had all the answers. The gay lobby has come out of the woodwork to take control. The pope lobbied for the job with or without the Holy Spirit. This same group forced out Benedict. This is all moving toward a one world religion and a one world government. The Catholic Church is being used as the “clothes tree” on which to build this new world organization.
Thanks again Michael. I get so many charity envelopes and I really try and be careful every month who I give to. Keep up this important work! Is there any guidelines you can suggest such as if it’s a religious order versus a big organization like CRS ? I am wondering if most religious orders use the money wisely since they may not be able to keep $$ for themselves ?
Question for you and everyone here:
You have been offered the job as President and CEO of a world-wide Catholic humanitarian aid organziation with over 5,000 employees working in 90 countries around the world with a budget of about $700 million that serves 100 million people annually. By your office, you will be personally responsible for the proper execution these programs to the Board of Directors.
I belive $400,000 is a fair salary as it is at least a 90% discount on the compensation paid to a CEO of a private business of similar size.
What is the fair salary that you should be paid? What is the basis for your calculation?
Forget about these huge concerns like CRS; they are strictly CINO. And organizations like the KofC have shown their true colors for decades, consistently refusing to admonish much less dismiss knights who openly support abortion and sodomic initiatives of every sort. Contribute instead to organizations like Food for the Poor (well over 90% of donations there actually make it to the poor), and to monasteries like Clear Creek in Oklahoma. If you carefully read their letters and appeals you will learn what they are all about, and you soon learn how to sort the chaff from the wheat. Be wary; there’s a LOT of chaff out there today, much of it bundled under the “Catholic” label.
Matt,
This is a one-man institute that, despite all it screeching muck-racking for the sole propose of fund raising, has managed to garner $8,3000 in support. Many posting here are, no doubt, well meaning good hearted people, but their vision of charity is more along the lines of a parish bake sale in support of local people in need; and this is needed, wonderful and commendable. However, the scale and scope of what CRS does – reaching tens of millions, giving them hope and lifting them out of poverty (usually in partnership with the local Church in these countries) and the expertise needed to manage these resources with the required stewardship is probably well beyond their experience and comprehension.
So why is mother Teresa so lauded? As far as I know, she never converted a soul to Catholicism. She acted strictly as a social worker. Isn’t that the same thing the conciliar church has done for 60 years now? Why the sudden shock about Catholic Charities and CRS?
Those NOT in the conciliar church have known about this ALL along and were laughed at by those in the conciliar church as being retrograde and sticklers for dogma. Let the dogma go, the rest falls like a house of cards.
“A lot of people confuse me as social worker, I am not a social worker. I am in the service of Jesus and my job is to spread the word of Christianity and bring people to its fold.”
~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Also:
‘After 35 years of serving the poorest of the poor, Pope John Paul II told Mother Teresa “I would like to change your Constitutions. I want the Missionaries of Charity to become missionaries not only of poor bodies but also of poor souls” — catechesis and evangelization! When Mother told the Pope that her Sisters were not trained for this apostolate, he told her, “train them!”
On Sundays, every able-bodied Missionary of Charity Sister is out teaching catechism.’
~ L’Osservatore Romano, 1 September 2010, page 6
(Online here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/bndlslove.htm)
I believe all that is written by Michael Hichborn. Too, too many of the clergy (cardinals, bishops, pastors and priests) are heretics. The Teachings of the Catholic Church have been diluted and as a result we have ‘menu’ Catholics, and that goes for many of the clergy. Only a handful of clergy will speak out on the critical issues of the day (abortion, euthanasia, same-sex ‘marriage’) and when they do they are verbally persecuted by Catholics……and other clergy.
Money so easily becomes an evil instrument when Catholic organizations take public monies to keep in existence. High salaries will be defended by those receiving such remuneration but their words fall on my ‘deaf’ ears.
One of the results of the liberal invasion of the Church beginning mainly post-Vatican II is the consistent decline of religious vocations which affected the teaching staff of the Catholic schools. My two older daughters attended a Catholic school from 7th through 12th grades. They told my wife and me if we want the third daughter to get a Catholic education, don’t send her to their school.
What real good does this article do, aside from saddening the hearts of faithful Catholics and, perhaps giving them impetus to pray harder, unless they become totally discouraged and abandon The Faith? Why is this information not shared with the Pope and the bishops, who have the authority to do something about this scandal? If necessary, please make a petition we can sign, to deliver to the Pope with this article. The liberalization of the religious orders after Vatican II paved the way for the industrialization and rape of Catholic charities, and the cutting of the throat of Her Mission.
Excellent questions, Mary. Perhaps the truth of what good the article is doing is right in front of us – realizing who we all are in the big picture… Perhaps, the faithful Catholic laity getting to work on the internet and all around while the Church officials try to do their part in a world that is so against God. We can only try to do our best. Your questions inspired me to look up a site that may be helpful http://www.catholicbible101.com/thechurchmilitant.htm: “The Church Militant is 1/3 of the entire Catholic Church known as the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church Militant is so named because we, its members on earth, struggle daily against the devil, the world, and our flesh. The other 2/3 of the Mystical Body of Christ are the Church Suffering (the poor souls in purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (those purified souls in heaven). The unity of these three groups comprise the entire church, and the cooperation between these 3 entities is also known as the “communion of saints.” Of course, saints on earth that Paul referred to in several places in the bible are not perfect, like the ones in heaven are, but he is referring to the fact that certain people on earth are leading exemplary lives for Christ, and are winning the battle against satan, the flesh, and the world.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church flatly contradicts Michael’s analysis:
“2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. “Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good.” Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.’
And Dr. Robert Stackpole of the Divine Mercy Library answers the question “Should Works of Mercy Always be Done for Free?” He completely rejects Michael’s analysis:
“Sometimes, it is even OK to do works of merciful love when the primary motive is a benefit for oneself: that is, when we ourselves have legitimate needs that must be met, such as the need for a salary that can provide us with a reasonable standard of living: food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and so on, for ourselves and our family. After all, you too are a child of God, Mary, and that means when you are getting paid for your works of mercy for the sick and the dying, you are thereby taking care of your own authentic needs as well; you are just mercifully caring for the needs of one more child of God at the same time: namely, yourself!
It’s the same for me, Mary. I am on salary at the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy. I get paid, in part for writing this Q&A column every week. But I do not need to feel guilty about that. Quite the contrary. By getting fairly paid for this spiritual work of mercy, I am thereby able to help take care of not only the spiritual needs of the readers of this column, but also the legitimate physical needs of myself and my wife and child. That pay does not make my work on this column less loving or less merciful. In fact, in a sense, it makes it even more merciful, because it extends the good that my work does to meet the needs of even more children of God: including myself! Your paid work for the sick and the dying, my paid work for the questioning and the doubting: It’s all merciful love, if our true intention is to meet the legitimate needs of the children of God.”
http://thedivinemercy.org/library/article.php?NID=3176
Thanks Michael,
I have long felt deeply sorrowful about how our Church has allowed itself to become nothing more than a cog in a wheel of the world no longer (in many respects) a light on a hill. Worse is how it has turned it charity services into nothing more than a government controlled entity. I once asked Bishop Robert Lynch from St. Petersburg Diocese why the Church takes government money, asking the question ‘isn’t long overdue that the Church cease this dance with the Devil.’ His response was interesting. He admitted that our government which funds Planned Parenthood also gave Catholic Charities funds and that these government funds in fact comes with strings attached. He then went on saying it was complicated and admitted the Church was going to continue this practice. It is not any wonder to me that a great apostasy is under way. The Church has lost much of its shine, or to be more accurate, the Church has lost much of its appeal to the son of man because it appears to no longer stand for Christ! Too many in the Church are swimming in the same direction as those in the world who are not saved. I know there are still some in the Church who are standing out as the salt of the Earth and the light of the world, praise be Jesus Christ! However, all too many of our leaders and fellow parishioners have failed us in both big and small ways worrying far too much about the esteem of man over God.
Thanks you, James! Your experience with a cleric supporting the continued government-controlled behavior of the Church is shared by many, particularly this parent of a college student seeking a real Catholic college. I find it hard to believe how far from the Church Catholic higher education institutions have wandered – at least as far if not further than Catholic charitable organizations. The resulting tuitions charged at these “Catholic” colleges in no way guarantee the level of faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church. Please, please, please support The Cardinal Newman Society http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/ for the future of the Church and our children.
To Mr Hichborn: an excellent read. Thank you! This article will be shared with family and friends for this topic must be known to all Catholics. All Catholics.
To Fr David and everyone: to be sure your donation goes to a authentic Catholic charity group or organization, find the time to do a search on their staff members/board of directors page. If no religious priests or sisters are involved, chances are they not not reputable.
A personal experience with Christian Appalachian Mission: this mission was founded by a young American priest several years ago for the Appalachian poor. My mother and I used to regularly send donations to his mission for many years. After his death, the lay people involved in his mission slowly made changes until his name was eventually deleted from the History page of their website and on letters sent to supporters. Other priests and sisters names and their involvements were also phased out, as well as the name Catholic. It is now called a Christian mission not a Catholic mission.
If you have done your homework and still in doubt … Follow your gut feeling.
God will re-direct your good intentions for His poor people.
Blessings to all!
I got a bulletin insert a couple of Sundays ago about a Catholic Charities of Dallas event on Mon. March 20th in Dallas re: immigration titled “Know Your Rights: Free information Session.”
It says for more info see the Cath. Charities Dallas website. I looked. On this page https://ccdallas.org/our-services/immigration-legal-services/ was a link for “Family Preparedness Plans.”
Go to https://www.ilrc.org/family-preparedness-plan for more information on Family Preparedness Plans.
On the right hand side of the page in a box titled Areas of Expertise is a link to one of ILRC’s pages: https://www.ilrc.org/lgbt-immigrant-rights — Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Immigrant Rights
Catholic Charities of Dallas website links to an organization which advocates for LGBT immigrant “rights.”
Lepanto may be very well aware of this or similar situations, but I was not, at least locally.