Apr 16 2012
Progressive Catholics Do Damage Control Over Church’s Right Wing Policies
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Immigrants in South West Colorado could see their access to vital food, health care,and shelter disrupted following a decision by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, or CCHD, to cut an annual $30,000 grant to the Durango based Compañeros charity. Compañeros operates on a yearly budget of just $55,000. It lost the majority of its funding from CCHD because of its association with the Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition, an organization whose pro-gay rights stance is at odds with the Catholic Church. In response, Catholics United, a non-partisan group of progressive lay Catholics announced last week the creation of Withcharityforall.org, a website dedicated to collecting donations for charities de-funded by the Catholic Church over political differences.
Catholics United Executive Director, James Salt said, “The case of Compañeros represents a new high in the politicization of Catholic charitable organizations by the bishops,” referencing the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which controls the CCHD. The powerful Washington D.C. based interest group courted controversy earlier this year, butting heads with the Obama administration over a federal policy mandating employers to offer health insurance that includes coverage of birth control to employees.
The number of Catholics in the United States has declined in recent years with Church membership falling by 400,000 in 2008 alone. The church also faces a severe priest shortage. Catholics United blames the conservative Catholic hierarchy and internal Church organizations like the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops for driving many progressive adherents away with extreme right wing rhetoric. They note also that immigrants, who are served by charities like Campañeros, now account for the bulk of Church growth in the United States.
GUEST: Fumi Tosu, spokesperson with Catholics United
Visit www.catholics-united.org and www.Withcharityforall.org for more information.
One Response to “Progressive Catholics Do Damage Control Over Church’s Right Wing Policies”
I fell upon your website this evening while searching for progressive catholic websites. I live in Scotland and we suffer from a very conservative hierarchy who slavishly follow every dictat from the Vatican. In this year of faith where on the face of it we are encouraged to look again at Vat2 and discover that the church has paid lip service to much of what the council showed us as a way forward for the church. One of the events of the year here in Scotland is a St Andrews (our patron saint) Conference , my excitement was squashed when I discovered the main speaker will be Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia who is an arch traditionalist who is part of the conservative group responsible for last years very unpopular change in the liturgy and a proponent of a return to the Latin mass. Deeply unpopular in his own country due to his regular absences as he jets around the world First Class promoting his outdated and unwanted conservative ideas .
I want to see the church being relevant in the age we live in, these people are dragging us back to the past. Those days are gone never to return we need an open accepting transparent church which welcomes all people . The Vatican depends on the lack of unity among progressive groups and it uses it’s powers to advance that disunity among the faithful. The lay faithful have lost the small gains we made in the wake of Vat2 and now we see the return of tradionalism and clericalism. GOD HELP US