USCCB Cleaning Up CCHD?????

This story was also reported by Raymond Arroyo on The World Over Live Friday night. The question I have is this: "Is this a sincere effort at a clean up? Or an attempt by the CCHD to keep from facing the music? Part of the problem is that we don't know what the document actually says. & the article doesn't mention who wrote it. Or why the 5 drafts?

My suspicion is that this is an attempt by the CCHD to cover its backside & to keep it from having to face the music as it should. The way they are lobbying for the document makes me all the more convinced that the CCHD leadership doesn't want honest reform. & that probobly does mean ""sweeping changes" will be needed. Including some housecleaning of leadership.

Remember, it is this current leadership that allowed all the things to happen that brought about the current scandal. For example, it was the current leadership that OKed the 2010 Stations of the Cross that showed money going to groups that supported the promotion of abortion and/or same-sex marriage. & as Deal Hudson recently reported "new evidence has emerged that adds 16 new groups to the 51 originally listed as problematic by the Reform CCHD Now Coalition." (More Problems at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development )

Another question raised in that article is why is the CCHD waiting until the end of September to release the 2010 list of CCHD grants, when it is normally released at the end of August? Are they afraid that the facts would affect the vote on the current document? Are they afraid that if there is enough time to raise questions the radical reform they fear will happen?

Like I said, none of what I am seeing gives me any confidence that the CCHD leadership wants honest reform. Or wants to support authentic Catholic Social teaching as found in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. I have found it interesting that the "social gospel" gang (or as I prefer, "social sans Gospel" gang) hasn't rushed to embrace the 2004 document. But since I have a copy & have used it for research on what the Church actually teachings, I can explain that very easily. The document undermines almost everything the "social"ist gang promotes under the guise of Catholic teaching.

CCHD facing key test of support among US bishops

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is facing a critical test of support among the US bishops this week, CWN has learned.
All members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have been asked to respond by Friday, August 27, to a confidential report on the CCHD. The document—“The Review and Renewal of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development”—was prepared in response to bishops’ concerns that the CCHD has strayed from its original and become too closely involved with radical political movements.
Although the “Review and Renewal” document has gone through 5 successive drafts, a number of bishops within the USCCB appear unsatisfied with the document, and supporters of the CHD are fearful that at their November meeting, the US bishops may call for sweeping changes in the program.

“CCHD is being closely examined and its mission questioned,” one ardent advocate for the program wrote in a letter to the heads of diocesan social agencies. Robert Gorman, the executive director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, urged allies to contact their bishops and urge them to express their satisfaction with the “Review and Renewal” document, thus giving their support to the current direction and leadership of the CCHD.
The urgency with which CCHD supporters are lobbying the American bishops suggests that they expect a showdown with the program’s critics in coming weeks. So Catholics who hope for a fundamental change in the CCHD approach might also be inclined contact their bishops this week, to express their own concerns before the Friday deadline for comments on the “Review and Renewal” document.
The CCHD was established by the US bishops in 1970 to attack the root causes of poverty in America. For years the program has been troubled by critics who have said the CCHD has become too closely aligned with radical activist groups. Last year that criticism reached a crescendo, as lay Catholic groups exposed CCHD funding for organizations that promote causes inimical to Catholic teaching, such as legal abortion and same-sex marriage. While the CCHD leadership said that such grants accounted for only a small percentage of the organization’s funding for self-help groups, several American bishops announced that they were withdrawing their dioceses from the nationwide campaign to support the CCHD.
The “Review and Renewal” document, which is currently available only to bishops and their staff members, is an effort to reassure the USSCB members that CCHD grants will go only to organizations whose purposes and activities are compatible with Catholic social teaching.
But critics of the current CCHD approach have called for more definitive reform of the organization’s activities. Rather than forming alliances with groups that promote radical social change, they say, the CCHD should recognize the underlying causes of poverty as seen through the eyes of Church social teaching: the breakdown of marriage and family life and the lack of access to quality education.
[For a more fuller complete analysis of the effort to reform the CCHD, see Phil Lawler's essay, "The time is now for reform of the CCHD".]