Posted on 08/30/2015 6:58:38 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
From the Lepanto Institute’s report on ties between the World Meeting of Families and Planned Parenthood. A key leader for the World Meeting of Families has come under attack from a conservative Catholic “investigative group” that says he donated campaign funds to pro-abortion candidates.
The Lepanto Institute said Robert J. Ciaruffoli, currently listed as chairman (but sometimes listed as president) of WMOF’s board of directors, has, in various years, given campaign donations to Allyson Schwartz, Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady, Joe Biden, and Bill Richardson — all pro-choice Democrats. (The donations can be affirmed at the Federal Election Commission website.) The donation to Schwartz, a former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic before her stint in Congress, was singled out for criticism.
“The Church simply can't afford to have event leaders so cozy with Planned Parenthood's political cheerleaders,” said Michael Hichborn, the Virginia-based Lepanto Institute’s president. He sent the story out to reporters with the headline: “President of World Meeting of Families Funded Planned Parenthood Director's Political Campaign.”
Ciaruffoli did not respond to a call and email for comment.
Trending: New Publisher to Scrutinize Separate Newsrooms of Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com “The Lepanto Institute has proven once again that it is not interested in presenting information in any useful way,” the Philadelphia Archdiocese said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. “Neither the World Meeting of Families — Philadelphia 2015 nor any of its leadership supports Planned Parenthood. Lepanto’s sole intention is to create division, confusion, and conflict within the Church. Actions of that nature run contrary to Christian tradition. Their reports are not to be taken seriously.”
It’s true, however, that The World Meeting of Families leadership roster is packed full of members of the Philadelphia Democratic establishment, which generally runs pro-choice. Mayor Michael Nutter and Gov. Tom Wolf are both listed as honorary co-chairs. Other notable politicos include Comcast vice president David Cohen — a top fundraiser for President Obama — who is listed as a co-chair of the organization’s executive leadership cabinet, as is Comcast honcho Brian Roberts, who has given at least $76,000 to Democrats since 2006.
Indeed, one could make the case that the World Meeting of Families — and the accompanying visit by Pope Francis — would simply be impossible to pull off in Philadelphia without the support and active assistance of the city’s leading Democrats, many of them pro-choice.
Hichborn told Philly Mag that Catholics shouldn’t make common cause with individuals who work against church teaching on issues like abortion and homosexuality. "If the caveat is that you give positions of honor to people who are attacking the Catholic Church, you don't hold the event,” he said.
"They shouldn't be working with or giving positions of honor to individuals who are attacking the church,” he said. “If you can find another way, you find another way."
Archbishop Charles Chaput has been know to draw bright moral lines where church teachings are involved — over the summer praising a private Catholic school for firing a married gay teacher. Hichborn said he believes Chaput had been deceived by his staff with regard selecting WMOF leadership. "He's also a pretty busy man,” Hichborn said. “He doesn't have time to vet everybody."
Hichborn declined to give membership numbers for the Lepanto Institute, saying it is “purely an investigative organization, designed to protect the Catholic Church from enemies without as well as within." He had previously reported that a "gay agenda" was filtering into preparations for the World Meeting, a report also denied by the archdiocese.
The World Meeting of Families is September 22nd through the 25th. Pope Francis visits Philadelphia on September 26th and 27th.
Is this Pope the nail in the coffin of Catholicism as it was intended for the next fifty years?
I hope Francis states publicly that he is in favor of abortion and gay marriage, along with his hell-on-earth global-warming rants and pro-Marxist/socialism thesis - then his Lucifer-inspired views will be out in the open for all believers to see...
A funny link in the story:
Trending: New Publisher to Scrutinize Separate Newsrooms of Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com
Catholic.org equals CatholicOnline. One of the reasons I don’t use them if at all possible.
This pope cares more about taking our money and giving it to the “poor” than about the teachings of the church.
Don’t you remember the quote from the Bible?
“An the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
When the Church can not be seen as any different than the unbelieving world, it has become apostate.
Unfortunately Pope Francis says one thing and does another. Watch his actions that is were his true beliefs can be seen.
I am not Roman Catholic and have seen both good and bad in the Roman Catholic Church as in various Protestant Churches as well. I greatly admired Pope John Paul II as much as I do the Rev. Billy Graham, so I will try to take a neutral view on this as Robert Bourke advocated in his judicial decisions, namely if a ruling or judicial opinion applies to one group, it should apply equally as well to all (example, if a Christian baker is forced by law to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, then a Muslim baker should be forced to bake a cake for a Christian celebration, etc.). In the current case of this particular Pope, he has repeatedly taken positions and said things that if coming from Obama’s mouth would be considered at odds with not only Catholic but American beliefs and traditions as well. Pay careful attention to his last audience with Obama and this upcoming visit seeking ‘common ground’ between them, in other words in the area of illegal immigration, massive wealth redistribution, climate change which is another way of saying massive wealth redistribution, etc.. For Pope Francis to ally himself with this president in not only wrong but anti-Christian after Obama has taken such extreme positions on abortion (recall Obama in a first ever speech by an American President to Planned Parenthood ended his speech with ‘God Bless You’ to them), all manner of LGBT sexual perversion clearly called abhorrent to God in both the Old and New Testaments, and the persecution of Christians in the US Military and elsewhere in America by Obama and his minions. In joining with Obama on a broad front, Francis is aiding and abetting the continued murder of the unborn, the dismembering and selling of their precious body parts, and the rampant spread of homosexuality in America which by definition is totally at odds with what the Word of God teaches about family, procreation, and family values. What you see in Pope Francis is a Communist first and foremost and then a Christian, but one bent by communist ideology similar to many radical leftist priests throughout Latin America and Mexico. Essential what you had happen in the Roman Catholic Church is what happened in America with the election of Obama, namely a total leftist takeover. Francis is little more than a white Obama in clerical vestments; their aims are the same.
We are living in the Great Apostasy.
This article, by the way, has nothing to say about Pope Francis at all, one way or the other, but it's about Archbishop Chaput and his appointment of Robert Ciaruffoli as president of the WMF.
Ciaruffoli is an accountant by profession. As a member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia audit and finance committees, he is an important member of Archbishop Chaput's "cabinet."
Chaput, as head and host of this year's World Meeting of Families, is the one who appointed Ciaruffoli. Chaput is solidly pro-life and pro marriage as defined by Divine and Natural Law. Ciaruffoli has staunchly kept the contraception, abortion, and gay advocacy groups out of the conference. For this I applaud him.
Ciaruffoli apparently made political contributions in the past to some extremely morally reprehensible political figures; he also made campaign donations to pro-life candidates, such as Curt Weldon, Michael Fitzpatrick, and Pat Toomey. I can't sort out, untangle, interpret or justify all that, and the inconsistencies are seriously troubling.
But I do think he's doing the right things as World Meeting of Families president --- upholding natural and sacramental marriage as the basis of society, and keeping out the organized rot-vendors and perversion-promoters --- and that's what he was appointed to do.
Nobody ever twisted your arms for Peter's Pence.
I don't think so.
While we're at it, here's my own not-updated and not- complete, but still pretty robust link list of the Pope speaking out in favor of traditional marriage morality and against gay marriage and radical "gender theory" over just in the first 6 months of this year..
What, you haven't seen these in the mainstream media, either?
Ever wonder why?
LINKS:
Pope Francis Tells Couples To Wait Until Marriage To Have Sex
Pope Francis: Gender Theory Is a Threat to Society
Pope: Marriage between man and woman is threatened by gender ideology
Pope Francis: “Children have a ‘Right’ to a Mother and Father”
The Closed Door of Pope Francis (Speaks against abortion, divorce, and homosexuality)
Pope Francis: marriage inscribed in creation (Man/Woman)
Pope Francis and the family, the next step (pro-Traditional Family)
Pope Francis is starting to look a lot like Sarah Palin (Guardian UK dumps Francis)
A Letter to Pope Francis (Pope defends man-woman marriage)
Pope Rejects ‘So-Called Gender Theory’
Pope Rejected Gay French Diplomat as Ambassador to Holy See
Pope Francis 'refuses' gay French ambassador
Kasper is Not the 'Pope's Theologian,' Says Leading African Cardinal
Cardinal Burke Denies Rift With Pope, Warns of ‘Gay Agenda’ for Synod
Pope Rejects ‘So-Called Gender Theory’
Pope Rejected Gay French Diplomat as Ambassador to Holy See
Pope Francis 'refuses' gay French ambassador
Pope Francis condemns gender theory a third time: ‘The family is under attack’
Pope Francis defends church’s opposition to artificial contraception
Pope Francis Defends Human Nature Against Gender Radicals
Pope's Shocking Hitler Youth Comparison (Pope blasts gender theory)
Pope Francis: ‘The Choice To Not Have Children Is Selfish’
Pope declares couples who don’t want kids ‘selfish,’ says they are part of a ‘greedy generation’
Pope Francis on abortion: ‘Never, never does killing a person resolve a problem’
Bringing children into the world is never a ‘mistake’: Pope Francis
Don’t be afraid to have more children: Pope Francis
Pope Francis supports Slovak effort to ban gay ‘marriage’, adoption
Pope Francis Defends Human Nature Against Gender Radicals
Pope's Shocking Hitler Youth Comparison (Pope blasts gender theory)
Pope to Catholic couples: you can’t get married if you’re not open to children
Pope Francis praises Humanae Vitae, warns of attacks on family
The priest in his homily today strongly proclaimed the teaching of the Church on marriage with respect to same gender is “unchangeable.”
OK, we’ll see what Francis says while he is here in September. It is his duty as head of the Roman Catholic Church to uphold the faith against those who would seek to pervert and destroy it. Obama is clearly anti-Christian in virtually all of his positions and actions. Seeking ‘common ground’ as reported after what this man has said and done is unconscionable. I knew before my reply post that there would be staunch Catholics that would defend Francis regardless just because he has the job of ‘Pope’, just like there are moderate Democrats that voted for Obama regardless of his extreme positions just because he was ‘Democrat’. So be it.
And oh, by the way, thanks to all the good Catholics (and liberal Protestants as well) that put Obama in office with their votes and donations as well. Job well done.
I’m a Catholic and I posted the article. I also didn’t vote for Obama. I realize what’s going on in the Church. The College of Cardinals IMHO got it wrong when they selected him as Pope. I pray that he’ll change and start speaking clearly about Catholic doctrine. Blasting capitalism and taking democrat talking points on global warming, and cuddling up to cafeteria Catholics makes me sick.
There is no wiggle room on abortion; this is troubling to read. There are some Catholics, I believe, right here on Free Republic, though, who are backing Trump, and he gives “choice” to the victim of rape/incest.
We as Catholics, however, are supposed to be praying for, not criticizing this priest or that. Not that that is easy to do all the time, but Our Lady of Akita [in 1973] tells us so:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”
https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/AKITA.HTM
Since 'it is his duty as head of the Roman Catholic Church to uphold the faith against those who would seek to pervert and destroy it," we should be helping him do that, not spotlighting his stumbles and eagerly anticipating his falls.
By the way, I am a (modest) financial contributor to the Lepanto Institute --- the whistleblowers here. I'm not for shooting the messengers.
“Unsparing scrutiny and criticism; and so be it” or “not spotlighting his stumbles”. Which is it?
I don’t see how one can do both.
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