Progressive operatives pose as religious activists

It's that time of the year when the sweet waft of "hope and change" is in the air and, no, I'm not referring to idle campaign promises.though it might as well be, for all the disappointments we've seen in years past.
 
What I am referring to is marketing strategy for the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) that is taken up, in most United States parishes, during November.  After years of critiques, exposes and embarrassing (scandalous) revelations, after several cosmetic guideline rewrites, a superficial name augmentation, assurances of more careful oversight, and the attempts of several bishops to curtail egregious grants within their own purview, CCHD remains exactly what it always was: a funding mechanism for progressive political organizations.
 
On its new website, Poverty USA (www.povertyusa.org), the CCHD speaks of there being "two different, but complimentary, ways that we can walk the path of love, or caritas. We call these the "Two Feet of Love in Action," based on Pope Benedict XVI's reflections in Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) and Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth)."  Of course, CCHD was talking about the "two feet of social action" long before there was a Pope Benedict XVI - at least as far back as 1997 when its "Poverty and FaithJustice" educational program was in effect.  What CCHD means by these "two feet" are the doing of charitable works and the doing works of "social justice," or more precisely, political and social advocacy.  CCHD is primarily about the latter.
 
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with political advocacy but - to keep the metaphor going - it isn't on an equal footing with charitable works.  Citizens should, when they can, work for better laws and public policies, however not every law or policy proposed in response to a social problem is good or does what it claims it will do.  Legalized abortion was touted as the way to make abortions "safe and rare."  It accomplished neither.

Proponents will call it a necessary tool in the arsenal of women's "rights" - an example of social justice, if you will - but its cost is tremendous injustice against an enormous percentage of humanity.  Advocacy is only just - is only waged in the pursuit of true social justice - in so far as true good is accomplished.
 
Specifically, CCHD has chosen to hand over the discernment of what and how it will do "social justice" to people with very superficial understanding of Catholic teaching (except in so far as is makes good propaganda for their purposes).  A significant proportion of its grants goes - and has always gone - into funding and promoting Alinskyian organizing.  This is accomplished via the several, major national networks of PICO, the Industrial Areas Foundation, Gamaliel, DART, as well as a number of smaller, regional groups.  The local affiliates of these networks receive millions of CCHD dollars each year as they have since CCHD was founded in 1969/70.
 
Hope and change?  In the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, there were five awards for the 2011-2012 grant period, for a total of $205,000.  Of those five, not one is Catholic.
 

One, Albuquerque Interfaith, is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation.  Another, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, was funded to work on immigration rights but has engaged in other advocacy, as well - namely, sex education, reproductive rights, and same-sex marriage.  Both have been funded by CCHD numerous times before. Extensive documentation about both has been presented to the Archdiocese and presented in various public venues.
 
As a common denominator, Albuquerque Interfaith, the Barelas Neighborhood Association (the Barelas Community Coalition was formed from a subcommittee of the Barelas Neighborhood Association), and the New Mexico Acequia Association have worked together to promote a highly regulatory, urban development project called Planned Growth Strategy.[i]  Albuquerque Interfaith, Partnership for Community Action, and Somos Un Pueblo Unido are united in trying to pass federal Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation.[ii] 

This is in one New Mexico diocese but it doesn't really concern local - or grassroots - advocacy.  Both Planned Growth Strategy and the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation are nationwide activities. One can find that the CCHD is funding scores of Alinskyian and other organizations around the country to generate local support for highly controversial, national programs. While either may stem from genuine desires on the part of individuals to serve the common good, both programs come out of a particular political perspective about which not only may men of good will disagree but, which the Church, in general terms, has been extremely critical.  These programs are not, like the issue of abortion, settled moral principles but debatable solutions to practical problems.
 
Now, if an individual Catholic citizen wishes to support Planned Growth Strategy and/or Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, it's a free country. But for heaven's sake, soliciting charitable dollars to "help the poor" and then turning them over to political progressive operatives is mendacious and unjust.
 

[i] See, for instance, Dan McKay, "Growth Strategy Aims for Choice," Albuquerque Journal, 7-30-02.
[ii] NM Capitol Report: "Immigrants rally today at Capitol," El Paso Times, 1-24-12.