Posted on 04/24/2017 2:25:03 PM PDT by ebb tide
April 24, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s bishops must clean up or shut down Development & Peace in the wake of a LifeSiteNews investigation that revealed the Catholic aid organization funded pro-abortion and pro-homosexual activist groups in Latin American, pro-life leaders say.
“We can’t have Catholic money going to organizations that don’t have respect for human life from the very time of conception onward,” said Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life, pro-family political lobby group.
“It’s time for the bishops to shake this whole thing up and put into positions of authority people who are going to be careful about whom they hire and which organizations they give money to,” Hughes told LifeSiteNews.
“It’s totally shocking,” says Gwen Landolt, vice president of REAL Women of Canada.
The bishops should “cancel” Development and Peace as a Catholic aid organization and let the group “get their own money out of the Catholic Church,” she told LifeSiteNews.
“The thing has been taken over by its paid employees, and they’re running the show even though they’re supposed to represent Catholicism.”
Catholics “should be advised how abusive this is and how their money is not being used for ‘peace and development,’ but it’s used to kill unborn children and promote an agenda that is the antithesis of Catholic teaching,” added Landolt.
In an ongoing series of reports, LifeSiteNews journalist Matthew Cullinan Hoffman documents that Development and Peace funded at least seven organizations in south and central America that promote abortion and a pro-homosexual agenda.
This is not the first time LifeSiteNews provided evidence that the Canadian bishops’ international aid organization had funded pro-abortion, anti-family groups in developing countries.
In fact, as a result of those revelations, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) established a standing committee in 2010 to oversee Development and Peace, as Cullinan Hoffman wrote.
D&P thereupon stopped publishing the list of groups it supported and even went to court to block a freedom of information request for the list.
It’s evident from LifeSiteNews’ current investigation that “whatever action was taken previously was clearly insufficient, and since personnel are policy, more must be done,” contends Steve Phelan, director of mission communications for the Virginia-based Human Life International.
“We hope the bishops will take a closer look at the organization, realize that they are often not getting good information about what actually happens on the ground, and make the needed changes,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“As you see with the previous reports, there are some good people in organizations like Development and Peace, and some good bishops who are not sure what to make of the confusion,” observed Phelan.
“Unfortunately, we have seen too many times how deeply anti-life ideologies have worked their ways into many Catholic ‘development’ and ‘aid’ agencies,” he added.
“The entire aid industry is now built on the assumption that the top priority is to decrease population, and that even much of the best work has population control strings attached.”
Michael Hichborn, president and founder of the Lepanto Institute, sees the new revelations about Development and Peace as further evidence of widespread apostasy.
“The simple fact of the matter is that many Catholics, especially those in the social justice movement, have lost the faith,” he told LifeSiteNews in an email.
"If these people truly believed that there is Hell and that people actually go there for transgressing the teachings of the Church, no one at D&P or any other such organization would even consider working with pro-abortion groups, let alone funding them.”
But instead, the opposite seems to obtain.
“What we see happening at D&P is a microcosm of the much broader loss of faith throughout the Church,” Hichborn said. “D&P is doing what so many other Catholic social justice organizations throughout the world are doing.”
Indeed, the Lepanto Institute revealed in October 2016 that the American bishops’ international aid agency, Catholic Relief Services, was involved in distributing condoms and contraceptives, some abortifacient, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for four years.
The Lepanto Institute also provided conclusive evidence that Albrecht von Boeselager, third highest ranking official for the Knights of Malta, oversaw the distribution of condoms and oral contraception in developing countries.
But this demonstrable loss of faith is not confined to Catholic aid agencies, Hichborn asserts.
“We see Catholic politicians flouting Canon Law by openly promoting abortion, contraception and homosexuality during the week and receiving sacrilegious Communions on Sundays,” not to mention bishops and cardinals lobbying for Catholics who persist in living in “adulterous unions” to receive absolution and Holy Communion, he pointed out.
“It’s about time faithful Catholics just started calling this situation what it truly is; apostasy.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s bishops “appreciate” the information on Development and Peace and “would encourage you to engage D&P in an in-depth conversation, making use of this information to bring about improvement if necessary,” a CCCB spokesman told LifeSiteNews.
The bishops “are always concerned that the policies and partnerships that are formed by D&P do not undermine Catholic doctrine, ethics, and social teaching, and they support efforts on the part of D&P to vet partnerships carefully,” wrote Deacon René Laprise.
Campaign Life’s Hughes says he hopes this means the CCCB will act.
“At this time in the Church with so many people questioning where the Church is on all these different social issues, it’s imperative that the bishops speak up,” he said, “and make sure that what’s happening here is what should be happening, that it’s not some wishy-washy version of the Catholic faith, but that here is the Catholic faith.”
Contact information to express your concern (please be respectful in all communications):
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB)
Standing Committee on D&P
Deacon René Laprise, Director of Media Relations
Address: 2500 Don Reid Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1H 2J2, Canada
Phone: (613) 241-9461 ext. 225
Fax: (613) 241-9048
Click here to send an email.
General Secretariat of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Msgr. Frank Leo, General Secretary
Address: 2500 Don Reid Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1H 2J2, Canada
Phone: (613) 241-9461 ext. 206
Fax: (613) 241-8117
Click here to send an email.
Bishop Douglas Crosby, president of the CCCB:
Phone: (905) 528-7988 x2222
To send an email, click here and click on “email” link to the left.
Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
Phone (local number): 416-922-1592
Toll-free: 1-800-494-1401
Fax: 416-922-0957
E-mail: info@devp.org
Instead Bergoglio talks about allowing moslem illegal invasions, fairytale global warming, socialism, and artificial birth control to combat the Zika virus.
As bad as things are in the Catholic Church in the USA — and they are very bad, indeed — things are much worse in Canada. I read that many Catholic bishops support giving Last Rites to people about to commit suicide, i.e., terminally ill people who are taking advantage of the fact that in Canada, assisted suicide is now legal. This is insane. If someone is about to kill himself — for ANY reason — he’s either mentally unhinged, in which case, you have to help him, or he is NOT mentally unhinged...in which case, a sane person is about to kill himself intentionally. How can a priest absolve someone of a serious sin he or she has not yet committed?!
Funny, since the Catholic Church was supposed to carry the sword of Truth always, never promote evil and vile behaviors (moral sins), esp. to little children. There is NO blurring of the Truth with the true Catholic Canon, yet this pope does more than just blur the Truth, he tramples it.
The Truth will set us Free.
The Catholic Church will always possess the Truth.
I don’t think Bergoglio ever had it.
The Catholic Church is very bad in most Catholic dominated countries. Just look at what a mess most Catholic dominated countries are. The only reason Catholics have, in the past, fared as well as they did here is because we have been, in the past, at least largely, a believing Protestant nation. It is the Protestant belief in Christ that The LORD God has recognized and used to bless this country and make it great.
EVERY “Catholic” organization or agency whose name contains “peace,” “justice,” or “development” must be abolished.
And who appointed these monsters to the episcopacy? Saint John Paul II and Benedict.
JPII’s total negligence regarding the appointment of bishops is why I opposed his canonization. I don’t doubt he is a saint. But the Church should not gloss over the fact of his wretched, rotten appointments.
Within the Catholic Church (in every country) is a core of true believers: clergy and laymen who love Christ and have much in common with the faithful believers in the Protestant churches.
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