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.
