The American Spectator

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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.