NOTE: To download a PDF version of this report, please click here.
One Community United
One Community United (OCU) received its first-ever grant of $50,000 from the CCHD in 2020-2021.
We first reported on this organization in a newsletter due to its promotion of homosexuality and transgenderism, including the demonic “Drag-Queen Storytime.”
On June 23, OCU posted a schedule on facebook promoting “Rome Pride’s” events from June 23-26. Included in the line-up is “Drag Queen PRIDE Bingo” and “Drag Queen Storytime.”
And like groomers, One Community United reposted Sesame Street’s pride promotion in June of 2020.
In October of 2020, One Community United promoted “Coming Out Day,” encouraging people to identify with intrinsically disordered sexual tendencies.
And their celebration of pride goes back to at least June of 2017 – at least 2 years before its first grant from the CCHD:
In June 2019, One Community United again celebrated Pride Month.
The same is true for June of 2021.
And again, this year (2022):
CCHD Responds
Following the newsletter conatining this information, many of our readers wrote their CCHD directors and some received responses. Most of the responses are the typical canned statements CCHD provides, explaining their vetting process and how they never fund anything bad. One reader sent us such a canned response, wherein the CCHD director indicated that the local CCHD is clean and they can’t account for what happens on the national level. He wasn’t sure how to reply, so we provided him with the most central argument to the claim that since the local grants were clean, the concern should be taken up with the national CCHD. Here’s what we wrote:
The one thing that should be focused on regarding this response is this: Because only 25% of CCHD funds collected are retained in the local diocese, and the other 75% are sent on to the national CCHD collection, and because the grant to One Community United (OCU) was from a national CCHD grant, then the 75% contributed from [XXX diocese] went on to help provide the $50,000 grant to OCU. So, this is as much a local issue as it is a national one. As a steward of Catholic funds, Ms. XXX and the local ordinary have an obligation to ensure that no money collected from the faithful are used to support organizations that act in direct contravention with the Faith. Therefore, it is incumbent upon her and the local ordinary to address this gravely serious matter, even to the point of pulling out of the national collection if the National CCHD will not address and correct this matter.
The following is the response our reader received:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Campbell, Lynn<[email protected]>
Date: On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 12:07
Subject: Fwd: RE: Question About CCHD Funding
To: Cc:
Dear XXXXXXX,
The Lepanto Institute is not a credible source. The email forwarded by you falsely accuses the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
It contains misreported allegations that have been thoroughly investigated and considered by CCHD and the Bishops’ Subcommittee and the Catholic dioceses where the groups do their work.
As stated in the CCHD application, CCHD draws its directions, policies and practices from Catholic social and moral teaching and prohibits the funding of groups that violate fundamental Catholic teaching. As an initiative of the Catholic Church in the United States, CCHD does not fund organizations that engage in activities that contradict fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching.
CCHD has a strong review process in place. If at any point, evidence that a funded group is in fact participating in activities contrary to Catholic teaching, the group’s grant award will be cancelled.
The funded groups are practicing the principles the Church teaches of option for the poor, subsidiarity, and participation. I have seen the work of CCHD funded groups and know the good that is accomplished.
To learn more about CCHD I encourage you to visit: http://www.usccb.org/about/
I express our confidence in the grant review process of CCHD, and the principles which CCHD stands for.
Peace,
Lynn
Lynn Campbell, Executive Director
Office for Catholic Social Justice Ministry
———–
The reader asked us what to make of the email, so we crafted an email directly to Ms. Campbell. Here is what we wrote:
Dear Ms. Campbell,
A reader of ours forwarded this response from you regarding our report on the CCHD grantee called One Community United. In your opening line, you effectively called us liars when you claimed that we are not “a credible source,” and that we “falsely accuse the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.” In addition to that, you said that our report “contains misreported allegations that have been thoroughly investigated and considered by CCHD and the Bishops’ Subcommittee and the Catholic dioceses where the groups do their work.”
It should be noted that we are not the source of the information, as the information comes from both the CCHD’s website and One Community United’s own social media postings. And if the “allegations” have been “misreported,” then I hope you will enlighten us as to which of these aspects of the report is untrue.
According to the CCHD’s 2020-2021 grants list, One Community United received a grant for $50,000. (see here: https://www.usccb.org/
Our Report pointed out that One Community United promoted Drag Queen Story Hour and Drag Queen Bingo on facebook. This is a fact, and we included the link to the proof in our report. What is interesting is that this facebook post has since been deleted (here’s the original link: https://www.facebook.com/
The other social media postings we shared in our report wherein One Community United promoted LGBTQ activism (directly against Church teaching and CCHD grant guidelines) are still available for you to see:
https://twitter.com/
https://twitter.com/
https://twitter.com/
And for the record, we have screen shots of those posts as well, so trying to delete them won’t do any good.
So, please explain, Ms. Campbell, which aspect of our report is inaccurate? The part where we indicate that One Community United received $50,000 from the CCHD? The part where One Community United promoted Drag Queen Story Hour and Drag Queen Bingo? Or the part where we showed that One Community United was actively engaged in homosexual activism? And while you’re at it, if the allegations were “thoroughly investigated and considered by CCHD and the Bishops’ Subcommittee and the Catholic dioceses where the groups do their work,” and those allegations are indeed factual, by what moral standard were these things deemed acceptable by those who did the investigating and considering?
If you cannot provide any explanation as to how our report is not credible and how we falsely accused the CCHD, then I demand that you issue a correction.
Respectfully,
Michael Hichborn
President, Lepanto Institute
We never received a response to that email, but we did receive a statement from a different CCHD director sent to another reader. This CCHD director wrote:
“The organization One Community United did not promote Drag Queen Story Hour… it was done by a volunteer who did not have the authority or the permission of the organization to make the post. In CCHD’s due diligence with the Archdiocese, they understand intimately the activities and workings of the group and as of now, they wish to continue funding. It is important to also note that CCHD supports particular activities of the funded organizations. Those activities that we support are closely monitored and checked. CCHD money does not go toward the promotion of LGBT advocacy.” (emphasis added)
It’s completely irrelevant whether CCHD funds went to the particular activity or not because CCHD claims:
“As stated in the CCHD application, CCHD draws its directions, policies and practices from Catholic social and moral teaching and prohibits the funding of groups that violate fundamental Catholic teaching. As an initiative of the Catholic Church in the United States, CCHD does not fund organizations that engage in activities that contradict fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching.”
Unfortunately for the CCHD director making this claim, One Community United created a calendar of events that blocked off June 24-25 specifically for the Rome GA Pride festival. Unless this same rogue volunteer also created the calendar, the CCHD’s claim is not credible. Here’s a link to One Community United’s post about the calendar.
The inclusion of RomeGAPride on the calendar wasn’t a one-off, either, because it was on the same calendar on June 1, prior to the other two “revisions” mentioned in the post.
So, One Community United put the Pride event on their activities calendar, and then also posted the schedule of events for the Rome GA Pride event itself, which included drag-queen story hour. If this was all some “honest mistake by a low-level volunteer,” then how did the Rome GA Pride festival get on their events calendar to begin with? Here is a collage of pictures from Rome Pride 2022, celebrated by One Community United. Please note that this event had many, many children in attendance, so One Community United is not just celebrating the vile debauchery observed in these images, but also the scandalizing of children! These pictures come from the official photo gallery of the Rome Pride 2022 event.
Bear in mind that the other evidence from our initial email on this group showed a consistent disposition of favorability to LGBTQ ideologies, which fits right in line with their stated mission: “One Community United is a 501(c)3 organization composed of citizens working to eliminate Racial, Ethnic, Economic, Sexual Orientation & Religious barriers.”
But since the CCHD would like to explain away this activity by blaming it on some faceless volunteer, perhaps they will also blame the following tweet from July 8, supporting same-sex “marriage,” on the same volunteer as well.
Of course, on October 9 of 2019 One Community United shared the 49th Annual Atlanta Pride event, saying, “We, at #OneCommunityUnited Openly Embrace Our #LGBTQ Neighbors. There is always Room for You at Our Table!”
And for those who can stomach it, this is what One Community United was celebrating and promoting:
If the sharing of the agenda of the Rome GA Pride festival was an unauthorized post, then One Community United must answer for the rest of these posts, and publicly denounce the Drag Queen events. Otherwise, this will stand as yet another ham-handed cover-up orchestrated with the assistance of the CCHD.
CONCLUSION
One Community United is completely committed to promoting homosexual and transgender ideologies, celebrating some of the most vile displays of immodesty and gross sexual immorality imaginable. And when caught, CCHD defended One Community United without qualification, except to attack and condemn the Lepanto Institute. This is yet another reason why the CCHD must be shut down completely and forever.
This is sickening, for many reasons. The dedicated efforts and successes on the promotion of evil is shocking. But it is exceeded by miles by hiding under the banner of Catholicism. Who are you kidding? God, maybe?
You either pay here or hereafter. Take your pick because once you’re in the hereafter your options have been decided. By you, now.