Guess who’s funding two of the Catholic groups who claim that it’s O.K. to vote for pro-abortion candidates like Sen. Barack Obama?

Billionaire financier George Soros, the financial kingpin behind the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org.

In an Oct. 20 press release, Catholic League president Bill Donohue cites evidence of the two groups’ links to Soros and asks why organizations that claim to be authentically Catholic would be willing to pocket cash from Soros:

“In 2003, after left-wing mogul George Soros blamed Jews for anti-Semitism, the ADL branded his comments ‘obscene,’” Donohue said. “Two years later, I accused him of anti-Catholicism when his group, MoveOn.org, posted a picture of a smiling Pope Benedict XVI holding a gavel outside the U.S. Supreme Court, along with the following inscription: ‘God Already Has a Job…He does not need one on the Supreme Court.’

“Why is this relevant? Because this same bigot is connected to two apologists for abortion rights, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United. In 2006, Soros’ Open Society Institute gave Catholics in Alliance $100,000 (double the amount he gave in 2005), and in the same year Catholics in Alliance listed Catholics United on its 990 as an organization with which it has a formal relationship. John Podesta, who runs the Soros-funded organization, Center for American Progress, admits that he works closely with Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United. The Center for American Progress is also the sponsor of Faith and Public Life.

“Why would any Catholic organization take money from a man like George Soros? Because legitimate sources of revenue aren’t available? And why would Soros have any interest in funding Catholic groups? He doesn’t give the Catholic League any money, and if he offered, I would refuse it.

Said Donohue, “The reason Soros funds the Catholic Left is the same reason he lavishly funds Catholics for Choice, the pro-abortion group that has twice been condemned as a fraud by Catholic bishops: they all service his agenda, namely, to make support for abortion rights a respectable Catholic position. On October 17, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput accused Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United as doing a ‘disservice’ to the Catholic Church. He’s right. And now we know what really makes them tick.”

The Catholic Key blog has more info about the close links between the Democratic National Committee and the two Catholic groups singled out for criticism by Donohue.

And in case you missed it, yesterday’s Daily Blog post in which Archbishop Chaput criticized the groups is posted here.

—Tom McFeely