ACORN, collected millions from The Catholic Church

[Danno 1,228]

-------------------------------

The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | September 22, 2009

The evidence of Catholic collaboration with Marxist and “progressive” networks is substantial.

Federal funding of ACORN is not just a Democratic Party or Obama Administration problem. As a chart (PDF) produced by House Republican Leader John Boehner shows, most of the federal money going to the organization was provided under President George W. Bush. This is not something that most Republicans want to talk about, especially now that they can use ACORN funding as a weapon against Obama and the Democrats. To Boehner's credit, however, he had sent a letter to Bush asking him to block all federal funding of ACORN. The Bush Administration did not comply.

While Obama has strong ties to ACORN, they were originally established through the U.S. Catholic Church, which has also funded ACORN and similar organizations to the tune of millions of dollars. This is another taboo topic for most of the media. Even conservative news organizations are afraid of raising the issue, apparently fearing being tagged with the "anti-Catholic" label.

But the truth has been seeping out in mysterious ways. In a Politico.com story about Barack Obama's friendly meeting with the Pope, reporter Josh Gerstein featured information that made it clear that the President's Catholic connection goes back to his days as a community organizer and that Obama's associates understand and appreciate this fact.

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough was quoted as saying that Obama's work as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago "was funded partly" by the "Catholic Church campaign for human development..." He was referring to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an annual collection authorized by the U.S. Catholic Bishops which is advertised as a charity to "break the vicious cycle of poverty" but in reality has funded left-wing political organizations such as ACORN to the tune of millions of dollars.

McDonough , a former Senior Fellow at the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP), was the moderator of a May 10, 2006, CAP event on "How Catholic Progressives View the Role of Faith in Governance."

Conservative Catholics concerned about this problem have documented that millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades has gone into Saul Alinsky-style networks which pursue their own brand of socialist direct action. CCHD itself acknowledges funding ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million during the last 10 years.

Filling in more of the details of the story that Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough referred to, conservative Catholic writer and activist Stephanie Block has documented that Obama was lead organizer in Chicago for the Alinskyian Developing Communities Project. It received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and another $33,000 grant in 1986.

The Capital Research Center has just published "Left-wing Radicalism in the Church," a major report on this topic by Matthew Vadum.

While he was in Chicago, Obama was trained by top Alinskyian organizers. One was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel. The Developing Communities Project operated under the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of Alinskyian organizations that also received CCHD grants.

The Developing Communities Project, which hired Obama as lead organizer, was an offshoot of the Calumet Community Religious Conference of Alinsky-trained Jerry Kellman. The network of community organizations Alinsky founded, known as the Industrial Areas Foundation, also received CCHD grants.

The grants are being used, however, not just to seize power, but to change the minds of traditional Catholics. Indeed, this is a necessary prerequisite for taking power.

Alinskyian training sessions in the religious context are designed not to develop or cultivate a personal relationship with Christ and promote traditional values and cultural institutions but to engage in Marxist political activity and radical change. Stephanie Block puts it this way: "Their worldview is marred by visions of class struggle and perpetual revolution. They are systematically trained to renounce moral truth in favor of consensus-based 'values.'"

What has happened over the course of years, some of these experts say, is that Catholics trained in Alinskyian thought have become confused about moral issues and problems. They think, for example, that opposition to the death penalty is on the same moral plane as opposition to abortion, even though Catholic moral teaching has never precluded capital punishment. They believe that fighting "global warming" is as important as saving the lives of unborn children or preventing the killing of the elderly. They are trained to fight for abortion and homosexual "rights" in violation of traditional Catholic Church teaching.

The BigGovernment.com videos of questionable ACORN activities have outraged taxpayers and members of Congress. Many Catholics will be angered by the revelations-if Fox News dares to publicize the evidence-of how their money has been funneled to ACORN and similar organizations by the official Catholic hierarchy.

The evidence of Catholic collaboration with Marxist and "progressive" networks is substantial. A documentary, "The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy," notes that "Alinsky envisioned an 'organization of organizations,' comprised of all sectors of the community-youth committees, small businesses, labor unions, and, most influential of all, the Catholic Church." A website devoted to the documentary cites the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as one of several organizations "actively practicing Alinsky's techniques."

The Citizen's Handbook to radical organizing notes that "Much of IAF [industrial Areas Foundation] organizing occurs through Christian churches particularly the Catholic church."

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops cut off funding to ACORN last November, citing allegations of corruption at the organization. But money to other Alinsky-style groups has not been terminated.

If ACORN's federal funding is cut-off-and that's still a big "if"-some conservative Catholics believe that the damage has already been done. They say the proof is in the fact that most Catholics voted for Obama. They say the proof is in the fact that Obama was welcomed as a conquering hero when he visited Notre Dame, the premier Catholic university in the U.S.

In the same way that Obama's friendly meeting with the Pope has to be understood, his enthusiastic reception at Notre Dame can only be appreciated in the context of his hiring and training by Jerry Kellman, an apostle of Saul Alinsky and convert to Catholicism at the CCHD-supported Industrial Areas Foundation. Kellman's Calumet Community Religious Conference had itself been created and supported by several local Catholic churches.

Like Frank Marshall Davis, the Communist Party member who guided Obama's early years in Hawaii, Kellman has been called a "mentor" to the future President.

Alinsky had his own Catholic connection, having had the support in Texas of Catholic Bishop Bernard J. Sheil and the Catholic Diocese in the San Antonio area. This then became a center of support for Marxist-oriented Liberation Theology and opposition to the Reagan policy of preventing Communist takeovers of Central American countries in the 1980s.

Father J. Bryan Hehir, who in 1983 delivered a series of lectures at the far-left Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) entitled, "Matthew, Marx, Luke, and John" illustrates the continuing left-wing drift of the Catholic Church in foreign affairs. Hehir, who served on the staff of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington, D.C., from 1973-1992 and now teaches at Harvard, appeared on an October 15, 2007, Center for American Progress panel on "pursuing the global common good." Obama's adviser McDonough was also on the panel.

This "common-good approach to foreign policy" will be on display at the United Nations this week as President Obama and his advisers personally greet the dictators and despots of the world.

Some of the advance publicity has focused on figures such as Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi showing up at the U.N. But take a look at who's already there. The presidency of the U.N. General Assembly has been transferred from a Communist Catholic Priest, Miguel D'Escoto, who received the Lenin Peace Prize from the old Soviet Union, to a Libyan government official, Ali Treki.

[nowhereman 1]

So basically the Republicans, Democrats, Catholic Church & ACORN are all tied to one another. At this point not much surprises me, but kudos to you Danno for posting this thread (it doesn't use kid gloves with either party).

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You forgot the links:

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org

For the article:

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-bigger-s...nding-of-acorn/

And, a few "facts":

The Catholic Bishops and ACORN

This is a good news/bad news story. First the good news: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut off all funding to ACORN at some point in 2008, after revelations of the embezzlement of nearly $1 million dollars by the brother of Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN. Rathke, who is also a powerful figure in the SEIU, is a veteran of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who went on to bigger and better things--from a leftist standpoint--in union and community organizing. You can read about his background here, as well as this summary of his outrageous and certainly criminal decisions regarding his brother's embezzlement of ACORN funds (his brother also held financial positions for unions):

The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000. ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. Wade Rathke told the Times, "the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a 'weapon' into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN's often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers." A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN's chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C.

A particularly mind-blowing detail is that Dale Rathke was only forced to resign from ACORN eight years after his egregious embezzlement was discovered! So that's really good news, right? The Catholic Church was out front in cutting off funding from ACORN, a year before the current scandals broke. What's not such great news is that the Catholic Church, through the CCHD, was funding ACORN in the first place.

Apparently the need to justify that aspect of the affair occurred to the Catholic Bishops, because in November, 2008, they issued a FAQ that explained such interesting topics as:

What is the Catholic Campaign for Human Development? What is community organizing?

Why is the Catholic Church supportive of community organizing efforts?

Who approves funding for these projects?

Does CCHD fund partisan efforts?

What is the current status of ACORN’s CCHD funding?

All interesting topics, I think you'll agree, and you can read the explanations in the FAQ and take them for what they're worth. But there is one glaring omission from the FAQ. Inquiring minds might be curious to know not merely what the current status of ACORN’s CCHD funding was as of November, 2008, but also what the history was of ACORN’s CCHD funding.

And that's where the not really very good news gets downright depressing. Perhaps the good bishops never heard of Google, or perhaps they think the faithful haven't. Oh, but the faithful have, and answers are available. Catholic News Service (CNS) carried an article on October 16, 2008: CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities. According to the article:

...CCHD funded more than 320 ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million during the last 10 years. He said the community organization also had received funds since early in CCHD's history. CCHD's Web site reveals the campaign gave about $1.11 million to 40 ACORN affiliates in 2007 and $1.17 million to 45 affiliates in 2006. Over the years, some of the funds undoubtedly were used for voter registration drives...

The article goes on to relate a CCHD spokesman's claims that CCHD subjects its grantees to a great deal of scrutiny, and that they had no suspicion of irregularities in voter registration drives. You can take those claims for what they're worth, but the fact remains that CCHD -- which is to say, the Catholic Church in America -- has for decades been funneling millions of dollars into an organization founded by radical leftists.

That's bad news. Bad for the bishops, bad for the Church, bad for America. I can imagine Jon Stewart yelling at the good bishops: "####### were you thinking?" For an article that poses that Jon Stewart type of question, but with more detail and less vulgarity, there is a nice summary at Inside Catholic: How Catholic Money Funded Obama's Community Organizing, by Deal W. Hudson.

Yes, the Catholic bishops are currently very unhappy with our Chief Community Organizer's stands on abortion, and they -- or at least some of them -- have been fairly outspoken on that subject. What a shame, then, that Catholic dollars helped fund Obama's rise. It's a well written article that came out during the presidential campaign, and all Catholics should read it if, like me, they missed it at the time.

Come to think of it, since this aspect of Catholic activity has ramifications for all Americans, non-Catholics should probably read it, too. Hudson draws heavily on Stephanie Block's fine article The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost: Obama, ACORN, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The following should give a flavor for Block's critique:

After Obama went to Harvard Law School, he returned to Chicago and taught Alinskyian organizing to ACORN staff. Although ACORN has a different structure than other Alinskyian networks, its tactical philosophy and world view are formed by men who were trained by Alinsky, in a sort of diabolical apostolic succession. Obama ran ACORN's 1992 voter-registration drive, Project Vote, and in return received ACORN's endorsement for Illinois senator. ACORN annually receives about 5% of Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants. This translates into millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades going into Alinskyian community organizing. Catholics generously gave their money to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection because they were told it would "help the poor." Relatively little from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection goes to "help the poor." Alinskyian networks are political. They work closely with politicians - such as Obama - and other organizations that are fighting for abortion and homosexual "rights." ACORN's "People's Platform" has nothing in common with Catholic social justice teaching and everything in common with socialism. Gamaliel and the Industrial Areas Foundation teach liberationism, a form of "Christianized" socialism, among their members. This has serious ramifications for Catholics. The Alinskyian networks operate ecumenically and include numerous Catholic parishes. The Catholics involved in the extensive trainings these networks offer are not catechized in Catholic principles of social activism or political analysis but in Marxist analysis and praxis. Their worldview is marred by visions of class struggle and perpetual revolution. They are systematically trained to renounce moral truth in favor of consensus-based "values." .

Obama's Catholic connections, as not coincidentally his Alinskyite connections, run deep, in fact. CCHD itself was founded by a Chicago priest, Jack Egan, who was a disciple of Saul Alinsky. CCHD in turn has for many years been a major funder of the Gamaliel Foundation in Chicago, which trains in Alinskyite tactics, and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). Obama was recruited by and received his Alinskyite training through persons associated with these CCHD funded foundations (cf. Obama's Third Way).

From 1985 to 1988 Obama ran the CCHD- funded Developing Communities Project. (DCP) from an office located in Chicago's. Holy Rosary Church, as he has recalled. Let's hope there's a good news ending to this sorry episode, that for the bishops this will have been one of those wonderful "learning experiences" we hear about. If they plan on taking a serious look at where their money has been going, they could do worse than to start with an article that appeared yesterday: The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN.

Interestingly, there was a happy ending for the Rathke family, which had agreed to repay ACORN for Dale Rathke's embezzlement at the bargain rate of $30,000 per year (Interest? Hey, go ask ACORN.). A kind donor, who wished to remain anonymous, paid it off for the Rathkes. Turns out that that donor was Drummond Pike, whom you can read about here. The connection of Pike's Tides Foundation to ACORN isn't entirely coincidental: Rathke, whose ACORN the CCHD has been funding for decades, sits on the board of both the Tides Center and the Tides Foundation.

Strange bedfellows the CCHD has had over the years and decades.

ADDENDUM: After this article was finished, a new item at LifeSiteNews.com came to my attention: USCCB's Social Justice Arm Caught Funding Pro-Abortion/Prostitution Groups: Takes "Decisive" Action in Response.

Obviously, since last year, CCHD has done little to clean up its act, as the report of a newly formed watchdog group, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM) makes clear. A quick scan of the BVM report (linked in the article) shows that CCHD continues to fund overtly political and leftist organizations, basically using money taken from Sunday collections. In that regard, the LifeSite News article offers a telling quote from the late Richard John Neuhaus, formerly editor of First Things:

The late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus claimed last year, in the wake of the ACORN scandal, that the CCHD "has nothing to do with Catholicism, except that Catholics are asked to pay for it."

He called the organization "misbegotten in concept and corrupt in practice," and went so far as to urge that it be terminated. "What most Catholics don't know, and what would likely astonish them," wrote Fr. Neuhaus, "is that CHD very explicitly does not fund Catholic institutions and apostolates that work with the poor." Neuhaus suggested that the bishops would do better to spend their money on more Catholic-related projects, such as "Catholic inner-city schools."

Isn't it time that the bishops put an end to this charade and simply pulled the plug on the CCHD?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/the..._and_acorn.html

[Danno 1,228]

You forgot the links:

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org

For the article:

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-bigger-s...nding-of-acorn/

And, a few "facts":

The Catholic Bishops and ACORN

This is a good news/bad news story. First the good news: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut off all funding to ACORN at some point in 2008, after revelations of the embezzlement of nearly $1 million dollars by the brother of Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN. Rathke, who is also a powerful figure in the SEIU, is a veteran of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who went on to bigger and better things--from a leftist standpoint--in union and community organizing. You can read about his background here, as well as this summary of his outrageous and certainly criminal decisions regarding his brother's embezzlement of ACORN funds (his brother also held financial positions for unions):

The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000. ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. Wade Rathke told the Times, "the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a 'weapon' into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN's often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers." A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN's chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C.

A particularly mind-blowing detail is that Dale Rathke was only forced to resign from ACORN eight years after his egregious embezzlement was discovered! So that's really good news, right? The Catholic Church was out front in cutting off funding from ACORN, a year before the current scandals broke. What's not such great news is that the Catholic Church, through the CCHD, was funding ACORN in the first place.

Apparently the need to justify that aspect of the affair occurred to the Catholic Bishops, because in November, 2008, they issued a FAQ that explained such interesting topics as:

What is the Catholic Campaign for Human Development? What is community organizing?

Why is the Catholic Church supportive of community organizing efforts?

Who approves funding for these projects?

Does CCHD fund partisan efforts?

What is the current status of ACORN’s CCHD funding?

All interesting topics, I think you'll agree, and you can read the explanations in the FAQ and take them for what they're worth. But there is one glaring omission from the FAQ. Inquiring minds might be curious to know not merely what the current status of ACORN’s CCHD funding was as of November, 2008, but also what the history was of ACORN’s CCHD funding.

And that's where the not really very good news gets downright depressing. Perhaps the good bishops never heard of Google, or perhaps they think the faithful haven't. Oh, but the faithful have, and answers are available. Catholic News Service (CNS) carried an article on October 16, 2008: CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities. According to the article:

...CCHD funded more than 320 ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million during the last 10 years. He said the community organization also had received funds since early in CCHD's history. CCHD's Web site reveals the campaign gave about $1.11 million to 40 ACORN affiliates in 2007 and $1.17 million to 45 affiliates in 2006. Over the years, some of the funds undoubtedly were used for voter registration drives...

The article goes on to relate a CCHD spokesman's claims that CCHD subjects its grantees to a great deal of scrutiny, and that they had no suspicion of irregularities in voter registration drives. You can take those claims for what they're worth, but the fact remains that CCHD -- which is to say, the Catholic Church in America -- has for decades been funneling millions of dollars into an organization founded by radical leftists.

That's bad news. Bad for the bishops, bad for the Church, bad for America. I can imagine Jon Stewart yelling at the good bishops: "####### were you thinking?" For an article that poses that Jon Stewart type of question, but with more detail and less vulgarity, there is a nice summary at Inside Catholic: How Catholic Money Funded Obama's Community Organizing, by Deal W. Hudson.

Yes, the Catholic bishops are currently very unhappy with our Chief Community Organizer's stands on abortion, and they -- or at least some of them -- have been fairly outspoken on that subject. What a shame, then, that Catholic dollars helped fund Obama's rise. It's a well written article that came out during the presidential campaign, and all Catholics should read it if, like me, they missed it at the time.

Come to think of it, since this aspect of Catholic activity has ramifications for all Americans, non-Catholics should probably read it, too. Hudson draws heavily on Stephanie Block's fine article The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost: Obama, ACORN, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The following should give a flavor for Block's critique:

After Obama went to Harvard Law School, he returned to Chicago and taught Alinskyian organizing to ACORN staff. Although ACORN has a different structure than other Alinskyian networks, its tactical philosophy and world view are formed by men who were trained by Alinsky, in a sort of diabolical apostolic succession. Obama ran ACORN's 1992 voter-registration drive, Project Vote, and in return received ACORN's endorsement for Illinois senator. ACORN annually receives about 5% of Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants. This translates into millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades going into Alinskyian community organizing. Catholics generously gave their money to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection because they were told it would "help the poor." Relatively little from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection goes to "help the poor." Alinskyian networks are political. They work closely with politicians - such as Obama - and other organizations that are fighting for abortion and homosexual "rights." ACORN's "People's Platform" has nothing in common with Catholic social justice teaching and everything in common with socialism. Gamaliel and the Industrial Areas Foundation teach liberationism, a form of "Christianized" socialism, among their members. This has serious ramifications for Catholics. The Alinskyian networks operate ecumenically and include numerous Catholic parishes. The Catholics involved in the extensive trainings these networks offer are not catechized in Catholic principles of social activism or political analysis but in Marxist analysis and praxis. Their worldview is marred by visions of class struggle and perpetual revolution. They are systematically trained to renounce moral truth in favor of consensus-based "values." .

Obama's Catholic connections, as not coincidentally his Alinskyite connections, run deep, in fact. CCHD itself was founded by a Chicago priest, Jack Egan, who was a disciple of Saul Alinsky. CCHD in turn has for many years been a major funder of the Gamaliel Foundation in Chicago, which trains in Alinskyite tactics, and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). Obama was recruited by and received his Alinskyite training through persons associated with these CCHD funded foundations (cf. Obama's Third Way).

From 1985 to 1988 Obama ran the CCHD- funded Developing Communities Project. (DCP) from an office located in Chicago's. Holy Rosary Church, as he has recalled. Let's hope there's a good news ending to this sorry episode, that for the bishops this will have been one of those wonderful "learning experiences" we hear about. If they plan on taking a serious look at where their money has been going, they could do worse than to start with an article that appeared yesterday: The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN.

Interestingly, there was a happy ending for the Rathke family, which had agreed to repay ACORN for Dale Rathke's embezzlement at the bargain rate of $30,000 per year (Interest? Hey, go ask ACORN.). A kind donor, who wished to remain anonymous, paid it off for the Rathkes. Turns out that that donor was Drummond Pike, whom you can read about here. The connection of Pike's Tides Foundation to ACORN isn't entirely coincidental: Rathke, whose ACORN the CCHD has been funding for decades, sits on the board of both the Tides Center and the Tides Foundation.

Strange bedfellows the CCHD has had over the years and decades.

ADDENDUM: After this article was finished, a new item at LifeSiteNews.com came to my attention: USCCB's Social Justice Arm Caught Funding Pro-Abortion/Prostitution Groups: Takes "Decisive" Action in Response.

Obviously, since last year, CCHD has done little to clean up its act, as the report of a newly formed watchdog group, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM) makes clear. A quick scan of the BVM report (linked in the article) shows that CCHD continues to fund overtly political and leftist organizations, basically using money taken from Sunday collections. In that regard, the LifeSite News article offers a telling quote from the late Richard John Neuhaus, formerly editor of First Things:

The late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus claimed last year, in the wake of the ACORN scandal, that the CCHD "has nothing to do with Catholicism, except that Catholics are asked to pay for it."

He called the organization "misbegotten in concept and corrupt in practice," and went so far as to urge that it be terminated. "What most Catholics don't know, and what would likely astonish them," wrote Fr. Neuhaus, "is that CHD very explicitly does not fund Catholic institutions and apostolates that work with the poor." Neuhaus suggested that the bishops would do better to spend their money on more Catholic-related projects, such as "Catholic inner-city schools."

Isn't it time that the bishops put an end to this charade and simply pulled the plug on the CCHD?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/the..._and_acorn.html

Thanks for posting that.

I think too many people are under the assumption that the American Catholic church as a whole, follows the general "party line".

When in fact there are many sectors which rebel against Church principles and teachings, and this sounds exactly like a manifestation of that.

[zqt3344 21]

The Catholic church is run like a damn corporation on the inside at Vatican and never think it is not, which this does not surprise me at all, the Catholic church has created and caused a lot of problems over the centuries behind the scenes ever so quietly. Anytime they get outed they are very clever at bribing or paying of people for their silence.

-------------------------------

The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | September 22, 2009

The evidence of Catholic collaboration with Marxist and “progressive” networks is substantial.

Federal funding of ACORN is not just a Democratic Party or Obama Administration problem. As a chart (PDF) produced by House Republican Leader John Boehner shows, most of the federal money going to the organization was provided under President George W. Bush. This is not something that most Republicans want to talk about, especially now that they can use ACORN funding as a weapon against Obama and the Democrats. To Boehner's credit, however, he had sent a letter to Bush asking him to block all federal funding of ACORN. The Bush Administration did not comply.

While Obama has strong ties to ACORN, they were originally established through the U.S. Catholic Church, which has also funded ACORN and similar organizations to the tune of millions of dollars. This is another taboo topic for most of the media. Even conservative news organizations are afraid of raising the issue, apparently fearing being tagged with the "anti-Catholic" label.

But the truth has been seeping out in mysterious ways. In a Politico.com story about Barack Obama's friendly meeting with the Pope, reporter Josh Gerstein featured information that made it clear that the President's Catholic connection goes back to his days as a community organizer and that Obama's associates understand and appreciate this fact.

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough was quoted as saying that Obama's work as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago "was funded partly" by the "Catholic Church campaign for human development..." He was referring to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an annual collection authorized by the U.S. Catholic Bishops which is advertised as a charity to "break the vicious cycle of poverty" but in reality has funded left-wing political organizations such as ACORN to the tune of millions of dollars.

McDonough , a former Senior Fellow at the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP), was the moderator of a May 10, 2006, CAP event on "How Catholic Progressives View the Role of Faith in Governance."

Conservative Catholics concerned about this problem have documented that millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades has gone into Saul Alinsky-style networks which pursue their own brand of socialist direct action. CCHD itself acknowledges funding ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million during the last 10 years.

Filling in more of the details of the story that Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough referred to, conservative Catholic writer and activist Stephanie Block has documented that Obama was lead organizer in Chicago for the Alinskyian Developing Communities Project. It received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and another $33,000 grant in 1986.

The Capital Research Center has just published "Left-wing Radicalism in the Church," a major report on this topic by Matthew Vadum.

While he was in Chicago, Obama was trained by top Alinskyian organizers. One was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel. The Developing Communities Project operated under the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of Alinskyian organizations that also received CCHD grants.

The Developing Communities Project, which hired Obama as lead organizer, was an offshoot of the Calumet Community Religious Conference of Alinsky-trained Jerry Kellman. The network of community organizations Alinsky founded, known as the Industrial Areas Foundation, also received CCHD grants.

The grants are being used, however, not just to seize power, but to change the minds of traditional Catholics. Indeed, this is a necessary prerequisite for taking power.

Alinskyian training sessions in the religious context are designed not to develop or cultivate a personal relationship with Christ and promote traditional values and cultural institutions but to engage in Marxist political activity and radical change. Stephanie Block puts it this way: "Their worldview is marred by visions of class struggle and perpetual revolution. They are systematically trained to renounce moral truth in favor of consensus-based 'values.'"

What has happened over the course of years, some of these experts say, is that Catholics trained in Alinskyian thought have become confused about moral issues and problems. They think, for example, that opposition to the death penalty is on the same moral plane as opposition to abortion, even though Catholic moral teaching has never precluded capital punishment. They believe that fighting "global warming" is as important as saving the lives of unborn children or preventing the killing of the elderly. They are trained to fight for abortion and homosexual "rights" in violation of traditional Catholic Church teaching.

The BigGovernment.com videos of questionable ACORN activities have outraged taxpayers and members of Congress. Many Catholics will be angered by the revelations-if Fox News dares to publicize the evidence-of how their money has been funneled to ACORN and similar organizations by the official Catholic hierarchy.

The evidence of Catholic collaboration with Marxist and "progressive" networks is substantial. A documentary, "The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy," notes that "Alinsky envisioned an 'organization of organizations,' comprised of all sectors of the community-youth committees, small businesses, labor unions, and, most influential of all, the Catholic Church." A website devoted to the documentary cites the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as one of several organizations "actively practicing Alinsky's techniques."

The Citizen's Handbook to radical organizing notes that "Much of IAF [industrial Areas Foundation] organizing occurs through Christian churches particularly the Catholic church."

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops cut off funding to ACORN last November, citing allegations of corruption at the organization. But money to other Alinsky-style groups has not been terminated.

If ACORN's federal funding is cut-off-and that's still a big "if"-some conservative Catholics believe that the damage has already been done. They say the proof is in the fact that most Catholics voted for Obama. They say the proof is in the fact that Obama was welcomed as a conquering hero when he visited Notre Dame, the premier Catholic university in the U.S.

In the same way that Obama's friendly meeting with the Pope has to be understood, his enthusiastic reception at Notre Dame can only be appreciated in the context of his hiring and training by Jerry Kellman, an apostle of Saul Alinsky and convert to Catholicism at the CCHD-supported Industrial Areas Foundation. Kellman's Calumet Community Religious Conference had itself been created and supported by several local Catholic churches.

Like Frank Marshall Davis, the Communist Party member who guided Obama's early years in Hawaii, Kellman has been called a "mentor" to the future President.

Alinsky had his own Catholic connection, having had the support in Texas of Catholic Bishop Bernard J. Sheil and the Catholic Diocese in the San Antonio area. This then became a center of support for Marxist-oriented Liberation Theology and opposition to the Reagan policy of preventing Communist takeovers of Central American countries in the 1980s.

Father J. Bryan Hehir, who in 1983 delivered a series of lectures at the far-left Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) entitled, "Matthew, Marx, Luke, and John" illustrates the continuing left-wing drift of the Catholic Church in foreign affairs. Hehir, who served on the staff of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington, D.C., from 1973-1992 and now teaches at Harvard, appeared on an October 15, 2007, Center for American Progress panel on "pursuing the global common good." Obama's adviser McDonough was also on the panel.

This "common-good approach to foreign policy" will be on display at the United Nations this week as President Obama and his advisers personally greet the dictators and despots of the world.

Some of the advance publicity has focused on figures such as Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi showing up at the U.N. But take a look at who's already there. The presidency of the U.N. General Assembly has been transferred from a Communist Catholic Priest, Miguel D'Escoto, who received the Lenin Peace Prize from the old Soviet Union, to a Libyan government official, Ali Treki.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So basically the Republicans, Democrats, Catholic Church & ACORN are all tied to one another. At this point not much surprises me, but kudos to you Danno for posting this thread (it doesn't use kid gloves with either party).

FWIW, I could not possibly care less who the Catholic Church gives their donations to. Though I suppose it is a service to let donating Catholics know about it. Of course, Bush should have carved this nefarious bunch off the public teat long ago, but he didn't. Glad they are now, good riddance.

[Pooky 3,343]

So basically the Republicans, Democrats, Catholic Church & ACORN are all tied to one another. At this point not much surprises me, but kudos to you Danno for posting this thread (it doesn't use kid gloves with either party).

FWIW, I could not possibly care less who the Catholic Church gives their donations to. Though I suppose it is a service to let donating Catholics know about it. Of course, Bush should have carved this nefarious bunch off the public teat long ago, but he didn't. Glad they are now, good riddance.

I am not Roman Catholic, so I have no vested interest in where church donations go. But members of my family are and I know they'd be horrified to learn that their donations are being used in this way. The Roman Catholic Church can ill afford to be linked to yet another scandal, at a time when the pressure is on them from so many other fronts.

[rebeccajo 14]

So basically the Republicans, Democrats, Catholic Church & ACORN are all tied to one another. At this point not much surprises me, but kudos to you Danno for posting this thread (it doesn't use kid gloves with either party).

FWIW, I could not possibly care less who the Catholic Church gives their donations to. Though I suppose it is a service to let donating Catholics know about it. Of course, Bush should have carved this nefarious bunch off the public teat long ago, but he didn't. Glad they are now, good riddance.

I am not Roman Catholic, so I have no vested interest in where church donations go. But members of my family are and I know they'd be horrified to learn that their donations are being used in this way. The Roman Catholic Church can ill afford to be linked to yet another scandal, at a time when the pressure is on them from so many other fronts.

But the Vatican has always been involved in politics throughout the centuries.

In fact, all major denominations are politically active.

[Danno 1,228]

So basically the Republicans, Democrats, Catholic Church & ACORN are all tied to one another. At this point not much surprises me, but kudos to you Danno for posting this thread (it doesn't use kid gloves with either party).

FWIW, I could not possibly care less who the Catholic Church gives their donations to. Though I suppose it is a service to let donating Catholics know about it. Of course, Bush should have carved this nefarious bunch off the public teat long ago, but he didn't. Glad they are now, good riddance.

I am not Roman Catholic, so I have no vested interest in where church donations go. But members of my family are and I know they'd be horrified to learn that their donations are being used in this way. The Roman Catholic Church can ill afford to be linked to yet another scandal, at a time when the pressure is on them from so many other fronts.

But the Vatican has always been involved in politics throughout the centuries.

In fact, all major denominations are politically active.

Well thats to be expected, doesn't matter if you are Martin Luther King or the Pope.

What is unique here is the RC church giving money to groups with oppose the stance of the Catholic Church on so many issues.

(Though I doubt those church officials writing the checks to ACORN minded one bit)