CCHD Stations of the Cross

You can't hole up with your own distractions for a nanosecond before you are missing a major story.

Yesterday, Reform CCHD published their concerns about an outrageously offensive Stations of the Cross reflection they posted to their website.

American Life League Press Release here.

Spectacular work.

The second station, which is “Jesus Takes up His Cross,” focuses on the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. OVEC’s news archive is littered with articles on various progressive agendas, including abortion and same-sex marriage. While linking to articles is not itself an endorsement, the OVEC-inserted commentary on one of the headlines is. Next to the article headline “Democratic Leaders Want party to Move Right on Abortion Choice” is the parenthetical comment from OVEC itself, which says, “Can Democratic Leaders Say ‘Coat hanger’? Oh, who cares, it’s only women.” ...

The CCHD’s prayer for the second Station reads, “Jesus, may the work of OVEC inspire us to support the efforts of all whose crosses become heavy due to environmental threats that affect their health and well‐being.” Given OVEC’s overt support for abortion, we fail to see how OVEC can inspire ANY good Catholic with a conscience.

You get the gist.

The good news is, a few hours ago, ALL sent out the follow-up press release:

Less than 24 hours after the Reform CCHD Now (RCN) coalition released a report March 11 condemning the Catholic Campaign for Human Development’s version of the Stations of the Cross, the “prayer” was completely scrubbed from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ web site.

The CCHD’s Stations of the Cross transformed a beloved ancient Lenten devotional of the Catholic Church into a “prayer” highlighting the work of CCHD grantees – five of whom are involved in the promotion of abortion and same-sex marriage.

The RCN coalition charged that the CCHD’s Stations were “little more than fundraising pitches for pro-abortion and same-sex marriage groups.”

“We’re happy to see the USCCB respond quickly to clean the offensive material from its web site,” said Michael Hichborn, lead researcher on the CCHD for American Life League, an RCN member. “We hope and pray this is the first step in cleaning up the larger problem of the CCHD funding organizations that support abortion and same-sex marriage.”

The CCHD’s revision of the Stations of the Cross was the latest incident exposed by the 21-member RCN coalition’s campaign to end CCHD funding for organizations promoting philosophies and/or activities contrary to Catholic teaching.