Monday, October 06, 2008
WHERE DO CCHD AND BARAK OBAMA CROSS PATHS ?
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development comes up with some questionable contributions. This one is sure questionable. It seems that CCHD has financed ACORN.
insidecatholic.com reports:
How Catholic Money Funded Obama's Community Organizing
Posted on October 06, 2008, 7:19 AM | Deal W. Hudson
One of the untold stories in the Obama campaign is how his background in community organizing has direct links to Catholic funding -- from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic journalist Stephanie Block has been writing about the CCHD for many years, but it has been difficult to stimulate any serious concern about their funding the innocuous sounding activity of "community development." Innocuous or not, Obama's years as a community organizer were supported, in part, by Catholic money dispersed by the USCCB.
Barak Obama - was lead organizer in Chicago for the Developing Communities Project, it received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and a $33,000 grant in 1986.
While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel. The Developing Communities Project operated under the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of Alinskyian organizations that receive 4-5% of all Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants each year.
The Developing Communities Project, which hired Obama as lead organizer, was an offshoot of Jerry Kellman's Calumet Community Religious Conference. Kellman, another of Obama's mentors, was himself trained by Alinsky. The network of community organizations Alinsky founded, the Industrial Areas Foundation, receives about 16% of all Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants annually.
ACORN itself, very closely identified with Obama, recieves Catholic Campaign funding:
After Obama went to Harvard Law School, he returned to Chicago and taught Alinskyian organizing to ACORN staff. Although ACORN has a different structure than other Alinskyian networks, its tactical philosophy and world view are formed by men who were trained by Alinsky, in a sort of diabolical apostolic succession. Obama ran ACORN's 1992 voter-registration drive, Project Vote, and in return received ACORN's endorsement for Illinois senator. ACORN annually receives about 5% of Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants.
Some years ago I published an article in Crisis about CCHD, and spent some time studying their grants as pubished on the USCCB web site. There were long lists of $20,000 to $30,000 grants to groups and communities all over the United States, all under the rubric of "community organizing." It was clear to me that "organizing" meant training in politics, and I had no illusions about the kind of politics the recipients were being trained in.
Go to the website to read the rest.
Isn't CCHD part of the Catholic Charities appeal?
An Archdiocese of Wash DC Catholic blog is reporting it:
what we have found is that ACORN is one of the most corrupt organizations at the "community organizer" level. It has been involved in massive voter fraud in the last two elections, registering "Donald Duck" and "Mickey Mouse."
Now, where does the CCHD come in? Well, they give grants to ACORN? According to their 2007 Grantee List, they gave to apx. 35 ACORN Groups mostly for "Community Organizing: Economic Justice."
What the heck does that mean? Oh, you mean something like Barak Obama did?
Well, at an average of $25,000 to apx. 35 groups, that equals apx. $875,000 of nothing!
If you are going to help the poor, ACORN is not the way to do it!
This is one Second Sunday Collection that will not see my money!
Spero News is covering it as well. Stephanie Block writes:
Over at the Catholics for Obama blog, the headline screams, “Palin Continues to Smear Catholic Action.” This preposterous thesis has been crafted from her comments about Barak Obama’s past as a community organizer.
The blog contends, “Catholics across the country continue to be outraged by Republican politician Sarah Palin who repeated her smear against Catholic Action by mocking Barack Obama’s service as director of a community group sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) and led by eight Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago.” Well!
That’s quite a leap. Ms. Palin said nothing whatsoever about Catholic Action. It was the Catholics for Obama blogger who drew the connection between community organizing, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). There’s no secret here. The CCHD gives between a third and a half of its grants to Alinskyian organizing networks.
Alinskyian what?
If you are saying “Alinskyian, what?” you need to know that there are over 200 organizations operating in cities around the United States, training social justice activists according to the theories of Saul Alinsky.
Over the past 30 years, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has given millions of dollars from Catholic donations to these groups. That’s a lot of money going to train people in a very distinctive way of looking at the world and its problems.
Read on...
There is no question that Alinsky was a communist.
CatholicCitizens.org is covering it:
For nearly forty years, The Wanderer has followed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's funding of radical, left-wing political organizations, many of them carrying the brand of Saul Alinsky. The Wanderer also covered the first Call to Action conference - the months of "hearings" leading up to it, its orchestrated structure and contrived demands - and our reporters commented on the Alinskyian nature of it, not merely in its tactics but in its outcomes. In hindsight, we can see that organized dissent in the Church was a product of organized parishes, filled with Alinskyian-trained laity.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is responsible for that.
It is also responsible, in some part, for the fact that forty years later, we have a virulently pro-abortion, pro-homosexual presidential candidate whose principle political training has been in Alinskyian organizing. While he - Barak Obama - was lead organizer in Chicago for the Developing Communities Project, it received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and a $33,000 grant in 1986.
The Baltimore CCHD website lists an ACORN contribution:
$15,000: BALTIMORE ACORN/HOUSING JUSTICE:
A 3rd year grant will aid efforts to pass a reform of rental codes and a continued campaign aimed at predatory lending and finance reform.
CONTACT: Valerie Coffin, 825 Park Ave, 21201 (410) 752-2228
ACORN News for December 9, 2003 lists CCHD representatives as speakers at an ACORN event:
On November 13, the Phoenix Living Wage
Campaign, of which ACORN is a leading member,
held a forum on working poverty attended by 130
community members. Over 60 ACORN members
participated in the event, which was moderated
by ACORN member Carmen Arias. Presenters from
Arizona State University, the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development, and local workers and
church leaders spoke at the event about the
challenges facing low-income workers and
families in Phoenix.
If ACORN has been involved in voter registration fraud in the past, should we assume they will not be involved in that in this campaign?
Here in Ohio a voter can register by picking up forms at the library. A relative who works in the library said some patrons were coming in and requesting as many as 20 forms at one time. Sort of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Over and out to Sarah Palin.
Thanks to a reader for the heads up.
