Special Report
ACORN’s Unlikely Allies
The Catholic bishops funded left-wingers for too long.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) recently cut off its over $1.1 million in funding for the left-wing community organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), citing a million-dollar embezzlement case. Of course, news of the malfeasance first came out four months ago, whereas most have regarded ACORN as radically liberal for years. What explanation could the Catholic outreach program possibly offer for funding until now a group that is defrauding the electorate to help Barack Obama, the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever?
None — except for that maybe they thought they’d get away with it, before ACORN became a fixture in the evening news. The CCHD, which is run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has funded far-left organizations with missions diametrically opposed to that of the Catholic Church for years, including, in the '90s, the pro-abortion group National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The CCHD filed its grants for dozens of ACORN outfits under such left-wing euphemisms as “Economic Justice” and “Civil Rights.” While some of the funding most likely went toward some kind of economic justice through immigration reform (for which John McCain also collaborated with ACORN) and helping impoverished families claim their Earned Income Tax Credit refunds, there is no doubt a substantial portion of those grants also went to voter turnout initiatives — not to mention voter registration fraud. It would have been impossible to oversee the actions of these numerous ACORN affiliates.
Ralph McCloud, the director of CCHD, told Catholic News Service that he was aware that some of the money must have been used for voter registration drives in the past. “But by the same token, we didn’t find any voter registration irregularities, the allegations we are finding now,” he claimed.
Perhaps they didn’t, although that’s hard to believe considering the memorable stories of registration fraud from past elections, like the one in 2004 when ACORN offered a man crack cocaine to sign a registration form.
But even so, the bishops should have been aware that the vast majority of ACORN’s initiatives are at odds with the Catholic Church’s mission. Patrick Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society who has researched the CCHD’s activities in the past, noted that ACORN’s Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizing methods should have been a red flag for a Catholic outreach program.
“ACORN as a program is oriented towards empowering… it’s a struggle for power. And that ultimately is not what the Catholic Church ought to be focused on. We have a different concept of where power comes from, and it doesn’t come from governmental structures.” Reilly added, “It’s one thing to be engaged in charity, but it’s another thing to be struggling for political and government power.”
IF ACORN’S TACTICS didn’t tip off the bishops, their thinly veiled efforts to elect Barack Obama should have. Although ACORN is a nonpartisan entity under law, its targeting of low-income areas only in key swing states shows that it is very much interested in the outcome of the presidential election. In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other swing states, it has registered hundreds of thousands of low-income voters, many of them fraudulently. Is there any doubt who it hopes these folks will turn out for on November 4? In all of dependably Democratic Massachusetts, ACORN has registered only about 700 people. Why isn’t ACORN helping underrepresented Bay Staters make their voices heard?
The November issue of Labor Watch, published by the Capital Research Center, will delve into just how explicitly ACORN is aligned with Obama. For instance, in a 2004 issue of Social Policy magazine, ACORN National Association Board member Toni Foulkes wrote that the group “invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office.” Foulkes recorded that ACORN members worked on his campaign, and that “by the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends. ”
Labor Watch also references an ACORN-sponsored forum on December 1, 2007, when Obama “agreed to meet with ACORN in his first 100 days [as president] and said ‘before I even get inaugurated, during the transition, we’re going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda. We’re going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.’”
Barack Obama, then, has not only associated with ACORN since 1992, but the group also boasts of its work in getting him elected senator, and will expect favors in return if he’s elected president.
In June, ACORN acknowledged that Dale Rathke, brother of founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled almost $1 million eight years ago. This month, the CCHD deemed that misdemeanor cause enough for cutting off its funding.
Clearly, the CCHD won’t stand for misappropriation of Church funds. When it comes to supporting a left-wing group promoting the most extreme pro-abortion candidate in history, however, the bishops are not quite as severe.
About the Author
Joseph Lawler, former managing editor of The American Spectator, is editor of Real Clear Policy. Follow him on twitter: @josephlawler.
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Matt| 10.23.08 @ 10:15AM
Thanks for this. As a practicing Catholic (and convert) I've had a big problem with how the bishops have backed the Democratic party. I am distrustful of all talk of "social justice," as if plain old justice isn't enough. Too many Catholic became fixated on trade unions and the politics of envy in the 20th century. Yet when Christians embrace any kind of liberation theology, it's always the hard moral issues that fall by the wayside. The leaders of the Catholic Church need to be shamed into giving up this ilicit marriage with socialist politics. I think the younger and more conservative clergy are rejecting this '60s legacy, but it's deeply entrenched.
J David| 10.23.08 @ 11:43AM
Juan Amnesty McVain can't come out and denounce ACORN very well, because as Michelle Malkin has mentioned, he is connected to them through his bestest buddies at their close affiliates in LaRaza, and has actually spoke at their functions and in praise of their organization, and probably steered money their way.
R. Schwartz| 10.23.08 @ 12:27PM
I do wish people would stop confusing the Novus Ordo Church with the Roman Catholic Church. The Novus Ordo was created at the so-called Second Vatican Council, where those attending and presiding decided to embrace the heresies of Modernism and Religious Indifferentism. They created a new Church, new Mass, new Sacraments. Practically everyone followed them, out of respect for their perceived authority and position, not realizing that they had betrayed Our Lord and His Teachings for that of highly flawed men. It is not in the least surprising that the so-called US Council of Catholic Bishops behave the way they do. They are not truly Catholic.
Bosco| 10.23.08 @ 4:44PM
Why not be pro-abortion? The USCCB supports global warming in spite of the fact that over 300 scientists refute such a thing.
Patrick| 10.23.08 @ 7:35PM
Decades ago, to be Catholic was to be Democrat. The Catholic tide turned in 1973, when Roe v Wade allowed the wholesale slaughter of innocent children, and was hailed and embraced by the Democrat radical elite.
Now, consider that most bishops tend to be roughly in their sixties, and their predecessors in their seventies and eighties. That would mean that the Church leadership from the 1960's to the 1990's were New Deal "Yellow Dog Democrats". This is why the bishops would usually remind Catholics that abortion was bad, and denounce Roe v Wade, yet never consider using their votes to leverage against the radical left.
Yes, there's a great deal of lefty nonsense still in the Church in America, but even hippies grow old and die.
As for the sedevacantists out there, for all your anger and bile, you took the coward's path. You fled at the first hint of discomfort. My pity is with those who truly suffered for Christ, and listening to the pablum of Michael Joncas or Marty Haugan is nothing compared to their afflictions. Even so, the Spouse of Christ shall remain, in feast and in famine, with or without you.
pj | 10.24.08 @ 2:16AM
So, the Catholic church of the United States is funding the left...what else is new ? Since the radical sixties the Catholic church has been infiltrated by Marxist and homosexuals. Ironic, is it not ? Atheistic Marxist wearing the mask of an Ambassador of Christ. These blasphemers of God are in actuality ambassadors of Lucifer. Their homosexual activities and sexual abuse of children have nearly bankrupted the finances of the church in America. A good thing in that it diminishes their ability to fund their Marxist causes.
Why the faithful continue to fund these pretenders to the faith is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. I do note however that many a catholic have left the Catholic church over the years and joined the Evangelicals and Pentecostals, both Bible believing affiliations.
Many of these pretenders wearing the Roman collar are adherents of Liberation Theology. A theology that commingles communism with Christianity. That theology was then presented by an educated clergy to a (generally speaking) uneducated congregation. "My people suffer for a lack of knowledge" saith the Lord. Hence, the corruption of the church. Now it remains that the congregants support ANTI-LIFE candidates for public office. Amazing when one reads the bible (Genesis) where it is written, go forth and propagate the Earth. Additionally Jesus stated that He had come to "give you LIFE, that you would have LIFE in abundance."
My, my, my, how the Catholic church of america has CHANGED over the years. No wonder they now support the candidate for CHANGE !
pj | 10.24.08 @ 2:16AM
So, the Catholic church of the United States is funding the left...what else is new ? Since the radical sixties the Catholic church has been infiltrated by Marxist and homosexuals. Ironic, is it not ? Atheistic Marxist wearing the mask of an Ambassador of Christ. These blasphemers of God are in actuality ambassadors of Lucifer. Their homosexual activities and sexual abuse of children have nearly bankrupted the finances of the church in America. A good thing in that it diminishes their ability to fund their Marxist causes.
Why the faithful continue to fund these pretenders to the faith is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. I do note however that many a catholic have left the Catholic church over the years and joined the Evangelicals and Pentecostals, both Bible believing affiliations.
Many of these pretenders wearing the Roman collar are adherents of Liberation Theology. A theology that commingles communism with Christianity. That theology was then presented by an educated clergy to a (generally speaking) uneducated congregation. "My people suffer for a lack of knowledge" saith the Lord. Hence, the corruption of the church. Now it remains that the congregants support ANTI-LIFE candidates for public office. Amazing when one reads the bible (Genesis) where it is written, go forth and propagate the Earth. Additionally Jesus stated that He had come to "give you LIFE, that you would have LIFE in abundance."
My, my, my, how the Catholic church of america has CHANGED over the years. No wonder they now support the candidate for CHANGE !
chris buckley| 10.26.08 @ 6:28AM
The church supported and covered up for years, criminal, pedophile, priests preying on Catholic children. Why the shock when they support vote fraud? Chris Buckley
Timothy Pruse| 10.27.08 @ 3:08PM
Most of the writers are correct, this is a relic of the bishops who have been around for 30+ years. The appointments of John Paul II and Benedict XVI have improved on their predecessors, but the Vatican remains slow to clean house on some of the old lefties. Change is coming in the form of a rejuvenating Chruch led by the post-boomer generations.
Also, why must we consider those who haven't been to Mass since they were confirmed as part of the Catholic vote? There are mistakenly pro-choice practicing Catholics, but not nearly as many as the long-time atheists who somehow still fall under the term "Catholic" because of birth.
This discussion could do without the Tridentine extremists (hey guys, with all due respect, Jesus Christ never spoke Latin either!) and the anti-Church evangelicals (the Church existed long before they wrote the Gospels, sola scriptura is an irrational heresy against the Holy Spirit)
scecil| 2.10.09 @ 2:08PM
I'm a devout, practicing Catholic -- genorously contributing to the Dicoese, the parish, the schools for my whole life. Now, it all ends. I pulled back, not in faith but in generosity, after learning of the sexual abuses, cover-ups and legal defense against the families. Then when I saw the severe lack of interest in supporting its elementary schools (despite an occassional PR attempt to make it appear otherwise). I was extremely dissappointed that the great majority of "Catholics" voted for a pro-FOCA, anti-vouchers president. But this ACORN realization -- for decades CCHD has been contributing MY money donated in good faith to the church -- well, this has been the last straw. I will not put another dime in the basket at church. This decision to stop giving to ACORN is much too little too late. I am just shock to find out the church was contributing to ACORN, and it only makes me wonder what else I am supporting each time I write a check to the Catholic Church. I don't want to wonder anymore. It's over!