Earlier today Ralph McCloud, director of the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development (CCHD), offered an eloquent but
unconvincing defense of the radical charity he works for. He
provided the commentary at the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) Fall General Assembly in Baltimore. Listen to the
platitude-heavy discussion about the charity that finally cut off
ACORN last year here.
An amusing exchange from the USCCB streaming video from the
event today that sounded strangely like a PBS telethon:
PRIEST: You know that old axiom: Give a man a fish, he eats for
a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. As I read
more and more about CCHD it's about teaching fishing and it
seems like that's part of where these monies go, that our own
generosity helps others to sustain themselves and also to
contribute to the life of society as well, right?
MCCLOUD: Sure. I would take it even a step further in that it's
kind of like teaching an individual to fish but in addition
teaching an entire community to fish where they can be
supportive of one another.
That's not quite the way I see CCHD. The charity only reluctantly
cut off ACORN last year and continues to fund the equally radical
community organizing group Industrial Areas Foundation that was
founded by Saul Alinsky himself. It also funds PICO, DART, and
the Gamaliel Foundation.
CCHD funds groups that teach a man to steal another man's
fish so that he will survive at the expense of the other man
for life.
That's "social justice." That's what CCHD believes in.