BOMBSHELL: US Catholic Bishops Give $1 Million to Marxist Movement

Lepanto Institute ^ | November 16, 2025 | Michael Hichborn

[ebb tide]

BOMBSHELL: US Catholic Bishops Give $1 Million to Marxist Movement

A new investigative report from the Lepanto Institute exposes significant financial support by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an initiative of the US Catholic Bishops, for organizations deeply connected to socialist and Marxist movements. The report details how, under the banner of community land trusts (CLTs), millions of dollars have been funneled to groups whose founders and leaders openly advocate for socialist and Marxist ideologies.

“The very concept of CLTs emerged among self-identified socialists looking to remove land from speculative markets and promote collective ownership,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute.  “Time and again, we found that these CLTs were founded by members of Socialist parties.”

The investigation highlights that, since its inception, the CCHD has had intimate involvement with Socialists and Socialist movements.  Opening with a news report from 1980, the Lepanto Institute revealed that CCHD directors at that time participated in a conference led by Michael Harrington – the chairman of the National Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee. In the Conference, Harrington told CCHD directors that Karl Marx “had a profound respect for religion” before he urged a “union of religion and socialism.”

Key findings include:

• Direct Financial Support: Over the past three years, the CCHD has granted more than one million dollars to 13 CLTs, including the San Francisco Community Land Trust, Baltimore Community Land Trust, Inland Equity Community Land Trust, and South Bay Community Land Trust.
• Leadership with Marxist Affiliations: The report documents that leaders of these organizations, such as Tom Wetzel (San Francisco CLT), Nicole Fabricant (South Baltimore CLT), Anabel Nevarez (Inland Equity CLT), and Elizabeth Gonzalez (South Bay CLT), are openly affiliated with socialist or communist groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America and the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
• Promotion of Socialist Ideals: These CLTs publicly advocate for the transformation of economic structures, the redistribution of wealth, and the abolition of private property, aligning with Marxist and communist principles.

The following CLTs receiving CCHD grants have been flagged by the Lepanto Institute for involvement in Socialist organizations, the promotion of abortion, the promotion of LGBT ideologies, or some combination of all three.

• South Bay Community Land Trust – $150,000 since 2021
• San Francisco Community Land Trust – $50,000 in 2022
• South Baltimore Community Land Trust – $170,000 since 2021
• Inland Equity Community Land Trust – $75,000 since 2022
• Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust – $140,000 since 2021
• City Roots Community land Trust – $225,000 since 2020
• CommonSpace Community Land Trust – $80,000 since 2021
• Raleigh Area Land Trust – $175,000 since 2020
• Thurston Housing Land Trust – $80,000 since 2022
• THRIVE Santa Ana – $295,000 since 2020

The CCHD’s ongoing financial support for these organizations reflects the words of St. Paul in the 3rd chapter of his epistle to the Philippians: “They are enemies of the Cross of Christ; Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things.”

The Lepanto Institute is calling for a complete and permanent end to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  We encourage you to send this report to your pastor and to your bishop, asking them to refuse all future support for the CCHD.

Related Posts

• CommonSpace Community Land Trust

  CommonSpace Community Land Trust CommonSpace Community Land Trust (CSCLT) received its first-ever national CCHD grant in 2021.  It has received a total of three grants, including its most recent grant of $25,000 for the 2023-2024…

• 
  Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust

  Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT) received its first-ever national CCHD grant in 2021.  It has received a total of three grants, including its most recent grant of $75,000 for the 2023-2024…

• 
  City Roots Community Land Trust

  City Roots Community Land Trust City Roots Community Land Trust (CRCLT) received its first-ever national CCHD grant in 2020.  It has received a total of three grants, including its most recent grant of $75,000 for…

Filed Under: Catholic Campaign for Human Development Tagged With: catholic campaign for human development, CCHD, CLT, Community Land Trusts, dsa, marxist, Socialist, USCCB

[ebb tide]

USCCB Frankenbishops Ping

[KC Burke]

The mainline churches were infiltrated and each became a battleground for the left fifty years ago or more.

[butlerweave]

but the Marxist Movement wants to burn Catholic Bishops at the stake for warmth

[MinorityRepublican]

The mainline churches were infiltrated and each became a battleground for the left fifty years ago or more.

How did that happen? I mean, I do get it that your professor at the State U. is a Communist.

But your Episcopal priest is "woke"?

Only 50 years ago, he would have been a heretic.

[Big Red Badger]

Only A Million?
Come On Man!

[frank ballenger]

Absurd that they naively give to Commies and the Commies persecute Catholics.

I remember an author discussing his book about the Stalin era. A Catholic priest who helped the villagers but didn’t go along with Stalin on everything was pulled into a car, driven to the countryside at night and beaten with his hands tied and then shot to death.

In China today the Catholic priests have to make co-equal showing of honor to the Chinese Communist leaders along with any portraits or effigies of Jesus or Mary. No children are allowed in church (difficult to find a babysitter or else skip Mass, plus makes kids think the parents do weird religious stuff that’s distant from them). Surveillance cameras record everyone at church. The less Christian you are the longer your life expectancy when things go sideways.

From ChinaSource website:
Sino-Vatican Provisional Agreement is the policy that allows for the government-sanctioned appointment of bishops and requires religious organizations to align with the ruling Communist Party’s agenda, which can be seen as a form of honoring current leaders.

This agreement, first signed in 2018 and renewed since, is part of President Xi Jinping’s “sinicization” of religion, which requires that religious practices be integrated into the official government structure and be loyal to the CCP.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Absurd that they naively give to Commies and the Commies persecute Catholics.

It's not as if the bishops are actual Catholics.

[mass55th]

That’s a turnabout because after WWII, Cardinal Antonio Caggiano of Argentina, and Austrian Bishop Alois Hudal, helped set up the ratlines for anti-communists, fascists and Nazis to escape from Europe and settle in Argentina.

[BobL]

“The mainline churches were infiltrated and each became a battleground for the left fifty years ago or more.”

Yep, I remember Central America - bunch of TRAITORS. Hard to see how ANY conservative can give them money.

[The Great RJ]

This is not the Catholic Church where I was raised. The Church’s agenda has moved from left to now Marxist thanks topped Francis and now Pope Leo. I have long thought of joining the Orthodox tradition where their is both faith and sanity

[DesertRhino]

Put an empty envelope in the offering plate with a note telling them not to support Marxism.

[HYPOCRACY]

The last pope was a Marxist and so is the new one.

[bantam]

Afraid you’re right!
How in the world did the Church get to here!
I’m just disgusted!

[SecondAmendment]

>How in the world did the Church get to here!

Martin Luther asked that question over 500 years ago.

[hinckley buzzard]

It happens the way it always has happened. Marxist activists get involved in local groups and organizations, seek opportunities to advance to local positions like committee and board chairmen: boards of education; church boards of ministry: etc, then delegates to district assemblies, national conventions, what ever is there to work into. Local government offices such as DA’s(sound familiar?) state bureaucracies then national organization and federal bureaucracies as political appointees.

In the churches it was easy— tyranny masquerading behind the demagoguery of tolerance, inclusiveness, ‘fairness” and charity. Most prelates are suckers for this kind of talk, because it sounds so good on the surface, and they don’t look any deeper.

[nicollo]

Maybe the USCCB should try out a kind of Hyde Amendment and means test any donation recipient on support for abortion and gay marriage.

Might even get rid of a good number of leftist, heretical parishes... as well as a number of Bishops.

[maddog55]

Maybe it’s a payout to see if they can cover the Catholic pedophile ring.

[tired&retired]

Not all people who group together in Land Trusts are communists.

Communalism is different than communism.

In communism, people are forced to live together out of fear or retribution.

In communalism, people desire to live together and have common ownership out of Love and caring for each other.

🙏🙏🙏

[Bayard]

Catholic Church doesn’t have board chairman’s like protestant Church’s do.

They have seminaries and formation by other clergy. Bishop’s direct where priests are assigned to parishes, the laity do not get to choose a pastor.