Canada's Largest Catholic Newspaper takes on Development and Peace

About time. We've reported on the D & P scandal here and here.

From LifeSiteNews:

"TORONTO, March 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Register, published out of Canada’s largest diocese, has denounced Development and Peace for its document, revealed by LifeSiteNews on March 17, that disparaged LifeSiteNews, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) and the international pro-life movement in general. The Register also published a report by Deborah Gyapong in the same edition that included comments by D&P executive director Michael Casey confirming that D&P did in fact send to D&P stakeholders the harshly worded document that Casey said was "regrettably, unfortunately" made public.

The Register lead editorial, titled "Poor Judgement" and dated March 25 on its website, states, "D&P seems to have lost its way. How else to explain its bizarre document recently leaked to the public that is rife with misrepresentation and distortion as it disparages the respected Catholic pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition."

Read the full LSN article here.

The Register editorial, while welcome, is pretty weak. It says:

"D&P clearly is still smarting from year-old allegations that some of its overseas partners had ties to organizations that support abortion."

As we wrote last year, what LifeSiteNews reported were not allegations or accusations but simple facts. One example of many: The Mexican group "Comaletzin" received $32,000 from D & P in the 2007-2008 year. On April 22, 2009 LSN reported:

"Comaletzin's General Coordinator, Ofelia Pastrana Moreno, told LifeSiteNews in a telephone interview yesterday that the organization promotes the use of artificial birth control and 'sexual and reproductive health' services. If contraceptives fail, said Pastrana, Comaletzin seeks to make abortion available to women who don't want what she called the 'product' of conception, meaning the unborn child."

That's not an allegation or accusation but simply the report of a conversation with the coordinator of a group that receives $32,000 from D & P. If what LifeSiteNews has written is untrue, D & P and/or Ms. Pastrana should sue them for libel.

The Register editorial also says:

"Last summer, a bishop’s report on those allegations — a report woefully bereft of detail — exonerated D&P of wrongdoing. Regrettably, though, the bishops failed to explicitly address evidence that raised worrisome questions about five specific D&P partners in Mexico. Therefore, in many minds, the issue was unresolved. Since then more unsettling claims about D&P partners in other countries have surfaced."

When we saw the Canadian bishops two-and-a-half-page report back in June 2009 we asked "Can a Whitewash Be Transparent?" The Register editorial notices the same thing--the Bishops who wrote it never "explicitly address evidence" yet they "exonerated" D&P anyway.