Louder Than Words

Francis Cardinal George, in his post-election statement released during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) November 2008 meeting, says in reference to the highly publicized Freedom of Choice Act, that it would be “an evil law,” and the Church “should be intent on opposing evil.” Should be? That’s a peculiar phrasing. Yes, she should be. But is she?

If actions speak louder than words, then what the U.S. bishops were doing with our collection money begs that question. It turns out that in 2007 the U.S. bishops, via parish fund drives for Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), donated over $1 million in 37 separate grants to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a radical, pro-abortion group, and upwards of $7 million since 2000.

At ACORN’s national convention in June 2008, Democratic Michigan Representative Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, said, “I believe with ACORN’s help we will elect a new president…. And his name will be Sen. Barack Obama.” ACORN has been linked to fraudulent voter registration in at least 13 states. Did the bishops allow our collection-plate tithes to be used in a (fraudulent) effort to elect Obama? If so, it makes hash of all their admonishments against voting for a pro-abortion candidate.

Only after it became public knowledge in July 2008 that the brother of ACORN’s founder was indicted for embezzling over $1 million from 1999-2000 did the bishops decide to “suspend” funding to ACORN through CCHD. Bishop Roger Morin, chairman of the bishops’ subcommittee that oversees CCHD, told his brother bishops at their November 2008 meeting that none of the CCHD grant money to ACORN was involved in the embezzlement. But he later admitted in a press conference that it is virtually impossible to determine how CCHD funds were being used because ACORN had pooled it together with funds from different sources.