Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Brian Cahill tells the Truth--Finally

Today, our friends over at Calfornia Catholic Daily linked to an article in the National Catholic Reporter by Brian Cahill, immediate past Executive Director of Catholic Charities CYO. It was under Cahill's leadership that CCCYO embarked on the disastrous partnership with Family Builders by Adoption--a partnership that saw CCCYO bound by contract to increasing the numbers of children placed into adoptive LGBT households.

Left: Brian Cahill with openly homosexual San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who acted as a "consultant" on the CCCYO/Family Builders by Adoption partnership.

When news that the partnership was to be dissolved was made public back in 2008, due to outside pressure by the likes of us, Mr. Cahill stated:

"CCCYO officials told Catholic San Francisco that, as planned, the agency’s placing of two full-time employees at California Kids Connection will end in June 2009. 'The action is completely consistent with our 2006 announcement on adoption. At that time, we said that our plan was for a three-year partnership with California Kids Connection. That period concludes in June of 2009,' [CCCYO Executive Director Brian] Cahill stated."

We demolished the assertion that CCCYO had ever planned the partnership to be three-year deal in a post we wrote back on October 21, 2008. Today, Mr. Cahill finally comes clean and shows he was not telling the truth (which, to repeat, we showed at the time) in 2008. From today's column:

"When the collaboration was announced, we had a positive response from our local government partners and from the secular press, but the reaction of the conservative Catholic press was scathing in its criticism and condemnation. In spite of the archbishop's support of the program, there was strong conservative pressure to end the program.

Why would that matter if the program was only for three years? If that was the case, it was due to end anyway. Mr. Cahill's very next sentence:

"As the recession hit, the Catholic Charities budget deficit forced some painful choices. I retired at the end of 2008, the collaboration with Family Builders ended in 2009..."

"Forced" implies that it was budgetary constraints (coupled with the "conservative" pressure) that caused the dissolution of the partnership. But if Mr. Cahill was telling the truth back in 2008, nothing was "forced"--everything was moving along a pre-planned timeline. As he wrote then:

"At that time, we said that our plan was for a three-year partnership with California Kids Connection. That period concludes in June of 2009..."

But he was not telling the truth in 2008. He's a heck of a lot more honest now. Check out Mr. Cahill's column, as well as his previous NCR column, to see what Mr. Cahill really thinks. It's a condemnation of the culture at Catholic Charities that such a man can serve in a leadership position.

No comments: