Missouri Diocese Proposes Plan To Reform CCHD

(LifeSiteNews.com) - As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) prepares to receive a report on the controversial funding practices of their anti-poverty arm, one diocese has proposed a plan to cut off the group's shadier associations.

The diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph also suggested in a Monday post on its Catholic Key blog that its plan to reform the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which it has implemented on a local level, could be used as a template for revamping national CCHD operations.

Jude Huntz, director of the diocesan Human Rights Office, pinpointed "[CCHD's] relationships with community organizing groups across the country" as "the fundamental problem with many CCHD grants."

The CCHD offers both community organizing grants and economic development grants. However, wrote Huntz, the diocese concluded following investigations last year that community organizing groups at large, despite their laudable goal of helping the underprivileged, "began to develop a partisan edge to their work."

"What is more, many organizing groups began to advocate for causes that are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, most notably in the areas of abortion, same sex marriage, and health care reform," he wrote.

Therefore, the diocese decided to "cease funding all community organizing projects in our diocese and not to grant such requests in the future," said Huntz. He wrote that while the diocese "supports the concept of providing a voice to those who lack a voice in our society," it also believes "that there are a variety of mechanisms to achieve such a goal that can take place without funding community organizing groups that offer positions contrary to Church teaching."

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  While I think what the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is trying to do is admirable, I have serious questions as to whether or not it will work.  After everything that has happened, why not just scrap the whole thing.  There are those who would argue the CCHD is irredeemable, and they do have a valid point.  Certainly very few Catholic laymen trust it anymore, and you can count me in among them.  I left the envelope empty this year, and last year, and the year before that.  I honestly see no point giving money to an organization that is likely to turn around and give it to another organization that attacks the very Church I gave my money to support.  Even if the CCHD manages to be reformed, getting the laity to trust it again will be quite a task, and to even attempt it would put the reputation of the bishops and priest on the line.  I will freely say this.  Never in my life will I ever give money to the CCHD - period.  It won't matter to me who comes out supporting it.  Even if every Catholic bishop in the United States assured me it was safe, I still wouldn't do it.  It's never going to happen.  Till they put me in the grave, the CCHD will never get another dime out of me.  I'll give charitably to Catholic organizations direct, bypassing the diocese if I have to, but never to the CCHD.  Now you know where The Catholic Knight stands.  I just hope the rest of you out there have a long memory and never forget what the CCHD did to us with the money we gave them.  By the way, how's that knife in your back feeling these days?