Four SF Parishes Sponsor CCHD Grantee Dinner

Event to Honor Nancy Pelosi

This Sunday, February 21, four San Francisco Catholic parishes, Corpus Christi, Mission Dolores, St. Patrick’s and St. Peter’s are sponsoring the San Francisco Organizing Project’s 2010 “Soul of the City” Dinner. The dinner will honor Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The San Francisco Organizing Project is one of the two remaining recipients of CCHD grant money in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, although its eligibility for CCHD funding is open to question. Two other organizations whose grant requests were approved by the Archdiocese of San Francisco have since had their funding pulled. Those two organizations were the Chinese Progressive Association and Young Workers United. Both lost funding after it was revealed they were promoting positions in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching. The eligibility of the San Francisco Organizing Project has been challenged ever since it was revealed that the SFOP won $200,000 worth of funding for the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, a group which, according to their webpage and the testimony of a former employee, provides abortion referrals. Subsequent investigations revealed that the SFOP was instrumental in two San Francisco health initiatives that provided publicly funded abortion and contraception. Mr. George Wesolek, the CCHD Director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is on the honorary committee for the Pelosi dinner. The Honorary Committee is chaired by San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty.

While the usage of Catholic parishioners’ money to fund a group doing abortion referrals might have originally been excused on the grounds of ignorance, that excuse is no longer possible. And in fact it’s no longer being offered. The position of the Archdiocese is “yeah, we know they won money for a group doing abortion referrals, but we support them because they do other good stuff, too…” Still, it’s breathtaking to see parishioner’s money being used to sponsor a dinner honoring Speaker Pelosi. Pelosi’s championing of abortion is well known to every conscious American. According to Project VoteSmart: Pelosi was a 100% supporter of the interest of NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, and 2001. Also, according to Project VoteSmart: Pelosi was a 100% supporter of the interest of Planned Parenthood in 2008, 2006, 2002, and 2001—but of course that just refers to her voting record. Voting is just a small part of Pelosi’s supporting the culture of death. But I guess the same argument applies: “yeah, we know she’s an absolute champion of abortion, but we support honoring her because she does other good stuff, too…”

On February 5 Jack Smith of “The Catholic Key” wrote a widely discussed column on the methods of community organizers and their penchant for claiming to speak for large numbers of people when they actually represent far smaller numbers. Mr. Smith specifically mentioned his experience with the SFOP during his time in San Francisco, and how they inflate their numbers in order to magnify their influence:


“…for instance, the San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP) claims to represent 40,000 San Franciscans through 30 different Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations. But only a very small number of parishioners from each of those congregations have had any involvement with SFOP. Many will have no idea that the organization exists and most would be surprised to know that, by virtue of their parish membership, they are among the 40,000 people who make up SFOP.”

I bet they’d be even more surprised to find out that their money is being spent to honor one of the greatest enemies of innocent life in American history, Nancy Pelosi.


Published by Gibbons J. Cooney