Dear Eminences and Excellencies:
I write to you in the spirit of Canon 212, which obliges me to bring to your attention a grave matter regarding Catholic Relief Services. As shepherds of the Church in the United States, I implore you to hear these concerns and meticulously address the matter.
As you know, the Lepanto Institute published a report regarding Catholic Relief Services’ participation in a USAID-funded project called Project AXxes. From 2006-2010, CRS received federal funding to act as an implementing partner on the project. I am not writing to defend the report or its findings, but to address the admissions CRS made in response to it. In CRS’s response:
- CRS is asking Your Eminences and Excellencies, and all the faithful, to ignore four years’ worth of inventory and narrative reports that show CRS intimately involved in the distribution of millions of units of abortifacient contraception and condoms.
- CRS is asking that the written testimony of the head of IMA World Health suffices as refutation to the evidence. It should be noted that IMA’s current head wasn’t even working for IMA World Health while the project in question was being implemented.
- CRS put forth two identical letters, clearly written by CRS, from the Bishops’ Conferences of Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the assertion that the Lepanto Institute’s report is wrong. These letters were obtained weeks before the Lepanto Institute report was even published.
More to the point, CRS’s response to the report makes two stark admissions, showing that it was in fact in proximate material cooperation with the distribution of contraception.
- CRS admitted that it was an implementing partner in a project that distributed abortifacient contraception to health centers and hospitals for which it was responsible.
- CRS admitted that it implemented a natural family planning program in a project that was using these programs as a way to introduce Congolese woman to abortifacient contraception.
Click the link here for a more complete response to CRS’s statement regarding the Lepanto Institute report.
At the heart of this problem is the fact that CRS is in violation of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio, On the Service of Charity in two respects. CRS violates the requirement that it not receive funding from institutions that “pursue ends contrary to the Church’s teaching,” and CRS receives funding for projects whose overall goals include initiatives at odds with Catholic teaching. The motu priorio says:
Art. 10. –
- 3. In particular, the diocesan Bishop is to ensure that charitable agencies dependent upon him do not receive financial support from groups or institutions that pursue ends contrary to Church’s teaching. Similarly, lest scandal be given to the faithful, the diocesan Bishop is to ensure that these charitable agencies do not accept contributions for initiatives whose ends, or the means used to pursue them, are not in conformity with the Church’s teaching.
Art. 11. – The diocesan Bishop is obliged, if necessary, to make known to the faithful the fact that the activity of a particular charitable agency is no longer being carried out in conformity with the Church’s teaching, and then to prohibit that agency from using the name “Catholic” and to take the necessary measures should personal responsibilities emerge.
Because CRS receives the vast majority of its finances from contraception distributing and promoting agencies like PEPFAR, USAID, the Gates Foundation, the Global Fund, the Clinton Foundation, and the Open Society, among many others, it is violating Pope Benedict’s decree that Catholic Charitable organizations are not to “receive financial support from groups or institutions that pursue ends contrary to Church’s teaching.”
Secondly, because CRS routinely engages in financial partnerships for initiatives, such as Project AXxes, which have the distribution of contraception as a means and an end of the success of the initiative itself, CRS is again in violation of Pope Benedict XVI’s decree.
On behalf of concerned Catholics throughout the world, we beg Your Eminences and Excellencies to bring CRS into full conformity with Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio on the Service of Charity, forbidding it to receive or provide funds to agencies that promote abortion, contraception or sterilization, and to forbid it from participating in projects where any of these grave moral evils play a part in any way. And if CRS is unable or unwilling to follow the directive of the Church, as instituted by the Vicar of Christ, then we ask you to enact Article 11.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Michael Hichborn
President, Lepanto Institute
Please we need leadership in the one true Church now more than ever before!
Have you ever heard of God and the gift of free will to us? As a Catholic/Christian I am not FOR abortion but I do not believe it is my duty to FORCE someone NOT to have one. I truly believe that persons have to use their informed consciences in making decisions. Everything is NOT BLACK AND WHITE. There is also more to the LIFE ISSUE than abortion. What about preventing the conception from occurring by using birth control. Wouldn’t that be better than having an abortion?
Jesus Christ was understanding and merciful to people. He didn’t constantly throw RULES and LAWS at people who came to Him. Even the woman caught in adultery was treated mercifully. Pope Francis has been begging us to be MERCIFUL.
Catholic Relief Services has done much good in the world and doesn’t deserve the condemnation you have showered upon it.
I think you need to put your Canons away and pray the Rosary with Jesus and Mary in mind and pick up some mercy along the way.
Patricia, you said, “s a Catholic/Christian I am not FOR abortion but I do not believe it is my duty to FORCE someone NOT to have one.”
Do you believe that there are no and should be no consequences for actions? Do you believe that a robber who shoots a clerk in the face should not go to jail? Do you believe that someone who breaks into your house and kidnaps your children should not be arrested and face jail time? Do you believe that terrorists who bomb innocent civilians should not be tracked down by government agents and stopped before innocent lives are lost?
Unless you are advocating for complete anarchy, where there is no government enforcement for laws to maintain order in society, you must insist that just as murderers, terrorists and kidnappers should be arrested and face legal punishment for their crimes, so also must abortionists face such consequences.
As for CRS … no one denies the good it does. What faithful Catholics wish for is that CRS would stop participating in evil. If CRS stopped facilitating funds to organizations that work against the Catholic Church, stopped promoting contraception, and stopped partnering with organizations that attack Church moral teaching, no one would have any concern or criticism to offer. It’s not a high bar to jump, and it is baffling that CRS refuses to meet even that standard.
Thank you for defending the teachings of the Catholic Church and lives in the womb Mr. Michael Hichborn.
Do you know of any other Catholic agencies that uphold the teachings of The Catholic Church and help internationally or simply a Catholic parish in a land that needs our help with food, shelter and clothes and medicine that does not harm the sacredness they hold?
Thank you Lepanto for defending real charity and love.
HOW MANY BISHOPS STILL BELIEVE IN: THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH? FOR ME, THANK GOD THAT “BY GOD’S GRACE I AM A CATHOLIC…BY GOD’S MERCY I WILL DIE A CATHOLIC!!
I immediately sent your report to my diocesan office (Scranton, PA) the same day Lepanto issued the documentation. Within 5 minutes I received a poorly constructed letter which had to have been prepared in advance. My guess is this was well orchestrated within the USCCB to be dismissive and attempted to make the report seem foolish by those who were caught red-handed. They failed. Congratulations on your efforts, their inane response fooled no one.
Without naming names, was there to your investigation any supportive or at least sympathetic bishop?
Yes. There are supportive and sympathetic bishops regarding our investigation.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development is another organization that follows Jesus’ message, as does Catholic Relief Services, to minister to the least of my brothers and sisters. Jesus in His ministry didn’t throw all the rules at people but ministered with love and compassion. We Catholic/Christians have to be less judgmental and follow Jesus’ rule of LOVE & MERCY.
When you pray the Rosary think of Jesus and Mary’s ministry with love and mercy.
CCHD consistently gives money to organizations that are working against the Faith: http://www.lepantoinstitute.org/catholic-campaign-for-human-development/catholic-bishops-give-70000-pro-abortion-pro-homosexual-group/
Patricia,
Jesus is Love and Mercy but he is also Just and he always said “go and sin no more”
And when you say the Rosary pray for all who are living immorally. If we follow Gods commandments there’s no need for contraception.