NOTE: To download a PDF version of this report, please click here.
Granite State Organizing Project
Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP) has received $355,000 from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development since 2004, including $50,000 for the 2020-2021 grants cycle.
The Reform CCHD Now coalition reported that Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP) participated in a “gay pride” march in January of 2012. In a written response from the Manchester Director for the Diocesan office of Public Policy responded to the report saying, “GSOP denies participating in Occupy NH events which included a ‘gay rights’ march.” However, Meeting Minutes from Occupy New Hampshire, C-Span video footage, and news reports all showed that not only did GSOP participate in the gay pride march, but they were present for the planning session that brought it about.
In 2011, Occupy New Hampshire showed on its calendar that on December 17, it’s stateside assembly would be holding a meeting at St. Augustine’s Church. It further indicated that this meeting place was arranged by Sarah Jane Knoy of GSOP. (link no longer accessible)
C-SPAN video of the Occupy NH meeting that GSOP helped facilitate shows the inclusion of “gay pride” in the Occupy activities, including a “gay-rights” march. Sarah Jane Knoy of GSOP spoke 16 minutes after the planning for the gay pride march took place. 
On January 7, 2011, a local blog called InZaneTimes, wrote about the event saying, “Tomorrow’s schedule includes a gay rights march through the streets of Manchester,” and then indicating that members of GSOP were participating.
Despite this evidence, the CCHD representative maintained the denial that GSOP participated “in Occupy NH events which included a ‘gay rights’ march.”
In addition to this unresolved and provable falsehood provided by GSOP, GSOP is an affiliate of the radically pro-abortion Faith in Action.
The CCHD absolutely forbids organizations from membership in organizations acting against Catholic teaching. In an FAQ on the USCCB website, the CCHD directly answers the question about whether grantees may be members of coalitions that oppose Catholic teachings. In answer, the CCHD firmly stated, “CCHD will not fund groups that are knowingly members of coalitions that have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
Faith in Action identifies Granite State Organizing Project as an affiliate on its “Federations” page, here.
Faith in Action is a coalition of 49 members, many of whom receive funding from the CCHD. Faith in Action itself received $500,000 in 2016 from the CCHD, when it was called the PICO Network. However, Faith in Action publicly supports abortion, its leaders openly slammed the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and FIA participated in electioneering activities in support of President Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates. The organization also supports LGBTQ+ ideologies. All of the pertinent information regarding Faith in Action on the whole is contained in the fully detailed report on FIA (see here), but the most important point is this:
On the day of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Dobbs v. Jackson case which overturned Roe v. Wade, Faith in Action took a formal position condemning the ruling, while vowing to “stand with women” calling it “oppression” to deny a woman the right to murder her child through abortion.
In an official press release, published on Faith in Action’s website, Faith in Action said:
“Clergy and organizers with Faith in Action, the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States, are speaking out against today’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, following a leak of the Supreme Court opinion.”
FIA’s executive director Rev. Alvin Herring called the decision, “a huge blow to women in this season of despair,” and declared that ”[w]e must speak out against dangerous policies that chip away at having agency over their own bodies.”
Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould, FIA’s Senior Strategist at FIA’s Washington, DC office, claimed that the “SCOTUS decision to overturn ROE” was “legalized, judicially enforced oppression” that “shows contempt for the Creator.”
Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp, member of FIA’s Organizing Clergy Board, said that the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was “deadly,” and that she was “enraged at the injustice, the lack of care for women and that most people who voted to take this right away will never have to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term in their bodies.” She then had the audacity to claim that “As a follower of Jesus,” her rage about the overturning of Roe “aligns with [H]is.”
This is the entire statement as it appeared on the Faith in Action website:
Conclusion
The Granite State Organizing Project clearly lied to the CCHD in 2013 after it was caught participating in both the planning session of and execution of a “gay rights” march led by Occupy New Hampshire, and has never reconciled that lie. Additionally, it is a member of a radically pro-abortion organization in direct violation of CCHD grant guidelines, and is therefore ineligible for CCHD funds.
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