Reality TV has another disturbing (though not surprising) youtube on the USCCB.
They apparently have not only been paying annual dues (minimum of $1000) to be a member of the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, they are actually involved in fundraising for them.
Active leadership in a Conference for Civil and Human Rights sounds all Martin Luther Kingy, doesn't it?
Makes you think about fighting discrimination, working to protect conscience protections, religious liberties, pounding the pavement for senior citizens, legal assistance for the poor.
But, the
civil rights leadership conference the USCCB fund-raises for is something completely different.
This Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights includes strategizing to defeat the pro-life movement with legislative initiatives designed to support planned parenthood and lobbied hard in Congress to defeat pro-life judges.
Like many others in the pro-life movement, I'm extremely disappointed that those who created a distraction about whether "john carr" was "pro-life" have been silent on the mounting evidence that the USCCB has been generously and radically funding legislation and initiatives that are nefarious.
With all due respect to John Carr, his characterizations that people making noise about a Bishop's Conference that has destroyed Catholic education, catechesis and our Liturgy, are "attacking" the Bishops, CCHD and now him, are people who can't find anything good to say about the Church, is a cheap shot.
"I would distinguish between those who have concern for the poor and wonder whether we're doing it the right way and those who simply disagree with the priority and the methods of CCHD," Carr said. "And then there are some who frankly have been attacking the bishops, the Conference, CCHD, and now me, and they've never found anything good to say about the church and its work."
Neither do I believe it is fair to characterize the criticism as people who just don't want to be friends with everyone or give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
"The polarization in public life is now coming over to Catholic life," Carr said. But while he would rather we "give each other the benefit of the doubt," what might be most telling about this story is how one audience member this morning responded.
"Unfortunately these days, if you're friends with everyone, somebody will condemn you," Louise Johnson of Modesto, California told me this evening. "It's not all that unusual" to hear such attacks within parishes and dioceses, she continued. "Social justice ministers run into this frequently because there's a lot of one-issue people who don't see the whole picture."
How asinine.
Nobody believes we can't be friends with people who are prochoice or for that matter work even with them on initiatives to help the poor.
We all work with people who are prochoice. What we don't do is join groups and sit on boards of directors, fund-raise for groups that make defeating the pro-life movement part of their mission, even if they give away free groceries and cars to the poor.
Giving out free groceries and cars is commendable. We can be friends with people who give out free groceries and cars. We can fund-raise and sit on their boards.
In fact, there are plenty of initiatives who work for the poor who don't simultaneously work on abortion legislation and defeating pro-life judges.
Knock yourselves out.
If slavery is part of the mission statement of people who give away groceries and cars, nobody would have any problem understanding why we can't sit on their boards of directors or funnel money into it from the USCCB.
Nobody would be in the public square implying pro-lifers are unfriendly or one-issue people who don't see the bigger picture of the good works of people promoting slavery legislation in addition to giving out groceries and cars.
They'd never have the gall.
They wouldn't get away with it.
Pro-lifers should stand up and be counted. Reject the intellectual dishonesty and nudge people into the light.
There's deafening silence from the USCCB.
Personally, I'm a little confused why Fr. Pavone is on board with this. Being fresh out of the scandal of having him actively campaign for proabortion candidate Scott Brown, perhaps my perspective is jaded.
Our friends at the American Life League and others who are indexing the breathtaking farce of the USCCB in what could very well be one the most destructive organizations to the Catholic faith from within possibly in history, not only deserve honesty, they deserve our zealous support.
I join those who are calling for a radical restructure, if not dissolution, of the USCCB.
