Catholics Charities: Reflections.

Last week, we had an article published in “California Catholic Daily” documenting how Catholic Charities CYO of San Francisco had become, to a significant extent, a homosexual activist organization. We showed how Church teaching on ministry to “transgender” and same-sex attracted persons had been corrupted and undercut by the actions of CCCYO, which had been allowed to by the Archdiocese. But the events of this past week speak more loudly than any words. They show how the corruption at CCCYO continues to infect the larger Catholic community.

A brief recap of the corruption at CCCYO:

In 1997 CCCYO recognizes the same-sex “partnerships” of its employees as equal to natural marriage;
In 2000, CCCYO starts facilitating homosexual adoptions;
In 2006-2007, CCCYO staffs “Family Builders By Adoption,” (“the gayest adoption agency in the country”) who are in the business of facilitating homosexual and transgender adoptions;
In 2007, CCCYO has a transvestite “same-sex marriage” activist entertain at one of their fundraisers;

2008: In their major yearly “Loaves and Fishes” fundraiser held on April 11, 2008 CCCYO chose to honor Mr. George M. Marcus for “Outstanding Philanthropic Works” and Levi Strauss, Inc. for “Outstanding Corporate Philanthropy.” Mr. Marcus has given at least $175,000 to initiatives that further the culture of death—all of which were utterly opposed by the Catholic Church. The Levi Strauss Foundation has given well over $1,000,000 to institutions that directly support and provide abortion and contraception. Both Marcus and the Levi Strauss Foundation have also funded politicians and organizations that are major actors in the promotion of the homosexual agenda.

Now, somebody chose these honorees. Who? Did CCCYO know of these donations? If not, why not? They are public knowledge. We think CCCYO must have known. We point out that the Treasurer of CCCYO also sits on the Audit Committee of the homosexual activist “Horizons Foundation.” The Horizons Foundation has received funding from the Levi Strauss Foundation, and one of the members of the Horizons Foundation Advisory Board, Assemblyman Mark Leno, received a campaign donation of $3,600 in 2007 from Mr. Marcus.

Did Archbishop George Niederauer know of these affiliations? The charitable thing would be to say he did not, and was caught unawares, but even if that were true originally, it quickly became irrelevant. For he certainly did know by April 4, because that’s when we informed him by email. Just to be sure, on April 7, we sent the information via US mail. And the California Catholic Daily ran the story on April 10, so it was well known throughout the Catholic blogosphere by that afternoon. Yet the Archbishop not only allowed the event to proceed as scheduled, he even attended. He was begged not to attend, but he chose to do so. His mere presence at the event gave Archdiocesan approval to the honoring of Marcus and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

The same letter that was emailed/mailed to the Archbishop was emailed and mailed, on the same dates, to 107 priests throughout the Archdiocese. Every one of those priests had a detailed description of Mr. Marcus’s donations, including the source that could easily be verified.

So the Archbishop and the priests of the archdiocese were armed with this information before the April 11 event occurred, and as we headed into the weekend of April 12-13. And what happened on April 12-13? That weekend, at every Mass in every parish of the Archdiocese, the annual special collection for Catholic Charities took place. We don’t know if any pastor said: “We can’t ask our parishioners to give money to this group. They are honoring those who heavily fund positions and organizations that are utterly opposed by the Church.” Without the leadership of the Archbishop it is hard to imagine such a thing happening—and because of his presence at “Loaves and Fishes” the Archbishop was leading in the opposite direction, anyway.

Catholic Charities has corrupted Archbishop Niederauer (assuming he does not agree with their activities). But by allowing the second collections for Catholic Charities, the Archbishop has in his turn, implicated the pastors who are required to ask for these contributions. By holding the second collections in their parishes, the pastors are, at the very least, collecting money from their flocks under dubious pretences. How many Catholics in the Archdiocese were even aware of the outrage at the "Loaves and Fishes" dinner? But the Archbishops and the 107 priests were aware of it.

It is important to remember that the amounts collected at the second collections are relatively insignificant. In fiscal year 2006-07 Catholic Charities received 62% of its total operating revenues ($20,525,272 of $33, 022,786) in the form of government contract revenue. The amount gathered by all CCCYO “appeals” put together would only amount to 1.9% of total operating revenues—and the money from special collections is only a small portion of that 1.9%. I’d guess that the 2007 special collection for CCCYO didn’t top $100,000—that’s less than 1/3 of 1% of the organization’s total operating revenues. So why do they even bother?

They bother because what they get is the image of faithful Catholicism. As we have shown, they are anything but. The continued association of the Archdiocese and CCCYO is scandalous.

Posted by Gibbons