Catholic Relief Services has said that it took steps to fight against the possibility of scandal due to its funding of an aid group that provides contraception in other countries.
The U.S. bishops' overseas relief agency responded to recent concerns over its funding of CARE, an international humanitarian organization that provides relief to the needy in developing nations but also offers contraception and early abortion-inducing drugs.
The funding from the bishops' group went towards programs providing food, water and sanitation to the poor and needy in Central America and Africa.
Catholic Relief Services has said that this funding was carefully restricted to morally acceptable purposes and had been reviewed by John Haas of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, who found that it did not constitute “support of or involvement in immoral activities.”
While the bioethics center did have serious concerns over the possibility of scandal based on the mistaken assumption that the relief agency endorsed CARE’s position on these issues, Catholic Relief Services said that it tried to counter this risk by working “to publicly affirm our adherence to the teaching of the Church.”
A headline on a July 24 article on LifeSiteNews.com had originally indicated that Haas had advised Catholic Relief Services not to fund CARE. This headline was later changed to say Haas had warned the agency that “scandal would be unavoidable” with the grant.
Catholic Relief Services responded by saying that Haas did not advise on any course of action, but left that decision to the board of the relief agency, which “made the decision to award the grants and took steps to minimize the risk” of scandal due to misunderstanding.
In a July 25 online statement, the National Catholic Bioethics Center clarified that it does not “approve” grants for Catholic Relief Services, but instead gives occasional “ethical analyses” of grant requests when asked to do so as part of a review process
When asked to analyze Catholic Relief Services’ grants to CARE, the bioethics center determined that the grants “would likely save lives” and that no other agency without these problematic views was available as an alternative partner to achieve these goals.
It also concluded that the funds given to CARE do not go into a general pool that could be moved around to free up money for other purposes. Under federal law, the money given by Catholic Relief Services could be used for nothing other than the designated purpose of serving the poor and starving in other nations.
Due to the great good being achieved in saving lives, the lack of another effective way of achieving this good and the avoidance of contributing to the evil of contraception, the bioethics center determined that the grant was acceptable, according to Catholic moral principles.
However, the group “was gravely concerned about the risk of scandal that could arise” from a Catholic agency’s cooperation with an organization that disagreed with important Church teaching.
Therefore, the bioethics center “strongly cautioned” Catholic Relief Services about “the problems of misunderstanding that could arise with a grant to CARE” and encouraged the aid organization to issue a public repudiation of CARE’s positions on these issues.
Haas told Catholic News Agency that “our position was, in a way, both/and.”
“We did not believe the awarding of the grant would involve CRS in immoral cooperation, but we did fear that it would give rise to scandal,” he said. “However, this was a judgment that would have to be made by the board of CRS.”
Catholic Relief Services responded to these concerns by explaining in its mission statement that it is sometimes necessary to “participate in humanitarian initiatives undertaken by a wide range of groups,” including some that may not always be fully consistent with Church teaching.
However, the agency stressed, its involvement with such groups is “always and only focused on activities that are fully consistent with Catholic teaching.”
It added that it “neither facilitates, endorses nor enables any violation of those teachings” and that it utilizes a review process to ensure that funds are used in compliance with Church teaching.
Recent statements released by Catholic Relief Services emphasized that the group does not agree with CARE’s position on contraception and does not “support any positions that would be in violation of Catholic teaching on human dignity and the sanctity of human life.”
CRS emphasized, “Faithfulness to Church teaching always has been and always will be our policy."
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>>The funding ... went towards programs providing food, water and sanitation to the poor and needy in Central America and Africa. ... reviewed by John Haas ... who found that it did not constitute “support of or involvement in immoral activities.”<<
So, giving the Nazi’s 20 pieces of silver to help them provide food, water & sanitation to the poor would be okay too?
Another prime example of someone who claims to be a Catholic lay leader, yet in truth whose heart makes an idol of “social justice” and the god who rules over it.
the only one i really contribute to is EWTN..you don’t know who to trust anymore and what kind of scandals will pop up ...so i just play it safe and after seeing Mother Angelica scowl at the tv camera years back and say ‘YOU LIBERALS MAKE ME SICK’..this fighting Joan of Arc gets my help
One of the most disturbing aspects of CRS giving millions of dollars to CARE is what will happen after the money is used. CARE will use this money to do good things like build infrastructure and provide clean water and food for the poor. After this is done CARE will have established credibility with the people they have served. That is when in all likelihood CARE will begin the contraception and abortion push. After all they have come to help, they have just provided clean food and water now CARE wants to help with reproductive health issues as well.
Would you give money to Planned Parenthood even though they promised to use it only for breast exams? When you give money to ANY organization, you are giving them tacit approval. I don’t care what CARE promised to do with the money from CRS! It’s reprehensible for a Catholic charity give any money to a group that supports abortions. I suppose we’re being asked to view them as Nellie the prostitute with a heart of gold and we’re not supposed to judge?
It would be far more sensible and acceptable to give funds to only those agencies who support Church teaching. People have lost trust in any fund that the bishops support anymore, and it is through their doing. I stopped giving to their charities when it came out they gave a million dollars to Acorn! Why would anyone want their money to go to unethical anti-Catholic organizations? It makes me very sad that I feel this way. Thank you for providing this forum for authentic discussion and God bless you!
From recent reports through a Baptist Church, Catholic Relief Services is flying aid out of Scott Air Force Base on U.S. Air Force transports. That is laudable. However, that is where the problem arises. The aid goes with U.S. government “strings attached” which include planned parenthood services.
What is even worse than the appalling decision to fund CARE is the CRS’s inability to understand the gravity of the situation. Their pathetic explanation convinces me even more that the CRS is not an organization a Catholic can support in good conscience.
Hey! a third grader could figure this one out. Giving money to an enemy of the Church because they ‘pinky promise’ not to use any of the funds for intrinsic evil. Evil that they routinely perpetrate around the globe. Instead of coming out after having been caught and apologizing and trying to right a wrong, they urinate on my shoes and insist that it’s raining! We all know where the path of good intentions leads! Many other organizations that are deserving of support, CRS needs to be dismantled.
All monies given to Catholic agencies should be handled from start to finish by Catholics. Any involvement of non-Catholics will open the door to misuse or scandal. Perhaps the protesting LCWR group might consider using their members do do some real charity by taking on the ministries for which their orders were founded, rather than New Age celebrations. They could do the actual handling of food for the needy from collection phase to distribution at the field sites of need. Maybe then they would earn being called Catholic.
I agree with Kevin. It gives CARE a foot in the door. In addition, the money from CRS allows CARE to use the money that they would have spent providing food and clean on whatever immoral purpose enters their heads. You can be sure that CARE has already figured that one out. I also am not impressed with anyone from a “Catholics Bioethist” whatever giving the okay. Many ‘Catholic’ bioethists have given their blessing to removing food and water from comatose patients and, in one case, even gave the okay for an abortion. Plus, how does anyone know whether or not CARE falsifies documentation on how they spent the money from the CRS. It would not be the first time a governmental organization lied.
One wonders what logic John Haas of the National Catholic Bioethics Center was following when he ok’d this CRS to CARE funding arrangement - finding that it did not constitute “support of or involvement in immoral activities”. If an organization like CARE is actively implementing things that are considered to be intrinsically evil, then the organization itself becomes an intrinsic evil at its core, even if the organization is also performing activities that are deemed good. Mr. Haas and the National Catholic Bioethics Center should know this. So should CRS. It would appear that they are all playing an incestuous game of cafeteria Catholicism and moral relativism. According to this flawed logic choosing (funding) a part of CARE that is doing good (providing relief to the needy) trumps the part of CARE that is doing evil (providing contraception and early abortion-inducing drugs). This is a classic example of why Catholics today are so confused and can no longer tell the difference between right and wrong.
Jesus: “Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.” Douay-Rheims Bible, but no big deal to Catholic Relief Services.
P.S.: When you see a “bioethicist” run in the other direction.
The result of this sordid affair is that I have added two names to the very long list of organizations I will never contribute to: the Catholic Relief Services and the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Give me a break while I go throw up. The “pinky promise” is a perfect description. Their arrogance is beyond stunning! Let’s see now….Do I believe what they say or what they do? Must be a genetic proclivity of liberals…without regard to any other factors. Yes we have to love them but at the same time we must not and can not tolerate evil. It’s the same old rationalization of all liberals… Their “Good Intentions” justify all their actions…regardless of common sense, logic, reasoning and the unintended but entirely predictable consequences. After all they do everything in the “Spirit of Vatican II”. which is code for doing whatever they want in the name of God.
A little bit of evil is STILL evil. Recently a charity I am involved with returned a large check from the Komen Foundation. Even though the money was to be used for mammograms, Komen’s affiliation with Planned Parenthood was unacceptable. Also, it should be considered that those who accept money from, or donate to pro-abortion groups are then listed with those groups in several publications. It just isn’t worth association with the “devil”.
I do not buy this response by the bishops. I am sick of all the scandals they have brought on our Church. If it is not CRS, it is CCHD or sexual coverups. Enough is enough!
Is there no other organization providing relief services to the needy besides CARE, one that doesn’t support abortion/contraception in its programs?
Sorry CRS, I won’t be donating to you or CCHD. “The ends do NOT justify the means”. I hope the Bishops wake up one of these days. The “Social Justice” groups are more in line with “Socialism”!!
I will no longer contribute to CRS or CCHD. Our Bishops must think their flocks are un-thinking sheep. Baa.
It is hard for me to believe it is either necessary or good for CRS to support this organization. They should only support Catholic agencies that provide for both the body and the soul. Aid to the Church in Need would be but one of many.
This is one more example where the emphasis on “Social Justice” has lead to questionable support for organizations whose idea of “Social Justice” is not the same as that contained in the teaching of the Catholic Church.
The very nature of money is that it is fungible. Therefore, to state that CRS’s contribution to CARE does not support abortion and contraception is a lie. Any CRS money allows CARE to continue funding these activities while still claiming to do good. CRS and those who support are either fools or liars.
New scandal involving CRS’s donation to the CORE Group, which is another pro-chemical-contraception population control “charity” like CARE.
It’s not just CARE.
So then why is CRS a dues-paying member of the American pro-choice group MEDICAM?
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15254
And why does CRS use Catholic money to hire people who work for pro-abortion groups?
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/woman-who-rammed-pro-lifers-with-car-was-employee-of-catholic-relief-servic
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