The Catholic Church’s position on abortion has always been and remains one of abortion being an “intrinsic evil,” which means no amount or variety of excuse or rationalization can justify the killing of a wholly, 100% innocent human life in the womb.
And yet a study by the Lepanto Institute found that a shocking 98%, i.e., nearly all of the political donations by employees of the Catholic Relief Services go to pro-abortion political candidates.
Note: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international charity organization founded in 1943 by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. It is said to provide assistance to 130 million people in more than 90 countries and territories across the world. The Lepanto Institute for the Restoration of All Things in Christ is a research and education organization dedicated to the defense of the Catholic Church against assaults from without as well as from within.
First, let’s look at Lepanto Institute‘s methodology.
As explained by Michael Hichborn for the Lepanto Institute, August 8, 2016, contributions that Americans give to political campaigns are recorded and made available as public information in order to ensure transparency in the political process. Donors are asked to provide information on their employer or what line of work they are in. Anyone can search the donor database by location, job type, sex, or religion. In fact, political parties and research organizations mine this data to look for demographic trends by location, job type, sex, or religion.
The Lepanto Institute (LI) did just that. It conducted a general search on www.opensecrets.org for the search term “Catholic” listed under employer/occupation and found 6,293 records for listings such as “Catholic priest,” “Catholic Health,” “Catholic High School,” and even “Catholic Relief Services.”
LI then narrowed the search to employees of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and found the contribution records of 52 CRS employees, who made a total of 191 political contributions. 50 of the 52 (i.e., 96.16%) CRS employees had donated to openly pro-abortion politicians, accounting for 187 or 98% of the total 191 contributions.
Hichborn points out the obvious, which is that “Statistically, this indicates an overwhelming one-sidedness, with almost no diversity of opinion among those working for CRS.”
He concludes:
“What this data reveals is that the culture of Catholic Relief Services is not one that is friendly to pre-born babies or the Catholic faith it claims to serve. In fact, as we see that employees of CRS are donating almost exclusively to candidates diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church, we can easily conclude that it’s because their faith isn’t Catholicism — it’s the Democratic Party. And given this, it becomes a little clearer why CRS would annually facilitate tens of millions of dollars to organizations that commit abortion, perform sterilizations, and distribute contraception. It also explains the bevy of other problems found at CRS, such as its publication of manuals and programs promoting condom use, the implementation of contraception-promoting programs like Healthy Choices 2 and Shuga.
This is why I’d long stopped donating to Catholic Relief Services because every penny I give also goes to the salaries of its evil employees.
And if you’re Catholic, I urge you to stop donating to CRS, but tell your pastor and bishop why. Just print out this post, put it in an envelope, and drop it in the donation basket.
And the U.S. Catholic Church wonders why Mass attendance is down, there is a priest shortage, and dioceses are closing down empty parishes . . . .
See also “Abortion is the leading cause of death in U.S.”
~Eowyn
