UPDATE: The Catholic Campaign's New Problem with Coalitions
by Deal Hudson - November 9, 2010
Reprinted with permission.
From the editor: On November 10, 2010, we received the following response to this column from the USCCB's Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. We print it in its entirety:
Responses to the CCHD Review and Renewal
The report on the Review and Renewal of CCHD has generally been very well received. It has been reported as a reaffirmation of CCHD's Catholic foundations and priority for the poor, a genuine response to concerns about CCHD funding policies and a detailed road map for CCHD's future with 10 commitments to strengthen CCHD as a faithful and effective expression of Catholic teaching and the Gospel.
The Reform CCHD Now Coalition said, "the renewal document is a positive step forward for the CCHD and if vigorously implemented, we hope to see an overall improvement in their funding practices. " However, they did not endorse CCHD and they and others have raised three additional concerns that merit a response:
1. "However, that being said, the CCHD will most likely not release the 2010 grantee list in time for this year's collection." The CCHD Review and Renewal calls for the development of a substantially revised CCHD Grant Agreement "to be used for all pending and future funding allocations and grants." This new contract will "be more explicit about the positions, activities and relationships not permitted by CCHD" and "strengthen prohibitions on partisan politics." After the Bishops' CCHD Subcommittee reviews and approves the revised Grant Agreement and the bishops discuss the CCHD Report at their General Meeting in Baltimore, this stronger contract will be finalized and sent to all potential 2010 grantees. While these groups were selected under earlier CCHD guidelines, only groups which sign the new Grant Agreement will receive CCHD funds. Therefore, the list cannot be published now since some groups may be unwilling to sign or abide by the conditions of the new Grant Agreement.
2. "CCHD repeatedly mentions that 5 out of 270 grantees were defunded last year. What is odd is the CCHD lists 6 grantees which were defunded." One of the six listed groups (the Rebecca Project) was denied re-funding when CCHD in reviewing their application learned they had recently violated CCHD requirements. Because they had recently acted in conflict with Catholic moral and social teaching their application was rejected, as are many others who fail to meet CCHD requirements. The bishops' Report says: CCHD takes any alleged violation of Catholic principles and CCHD policies very seriously…. We apologize for the violations of CCHD policies by these groups and for the damage and confusion they have caused."
3. Another criticism focuses on the reference in the Report to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) because they offered workshops at the US Social Forum in Detroit which had other workshops in conflict with Catholic social and moral teaching. Here is what the CCHD Report said: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is an organization of Latino, and Haitian migrant farm workers in Florida. Working with the local diocese, the Florida Catholic Conference and many other groups, CIW has won groundbreaking agreements with major fast food chains to increase wages and improve better working conditions for their members who pick tomatoes."
In rejecting this guilt by association, CIW expressed regret that they were not contacted before these unfair charges were published and explained that the Immokalee Workers attended the Forum to draw support for their effort to get decent wages and working conditions for migrant workers, not to advance any other cause. The meeting drew a reported 15,000 people from many organizations and approximately 1000 different workshops led by a wide variety of groups. The CIW shared their efforts to improve conditions for farm workers and their Campaign for Fair Food aimed at ending poverty and modern-day slavery in the fields. They were a part of several related workshops which had nothing to do with abortion, homosexuality or related issues. CIW emphatically denies that it is implicated in the pro-abortion or homosexual rights activities of other organizations. The Immokalee Workers have joined with other groups to share conditions in the fields and seek assistance for their efforts to improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers, not to advance positions contrary to Catholic teaching. They have never supported abortion or same sex marriage. Their impressive efforts have had the active support of the USCCB Domestic Policy Committee, the Florida State Catholic Conference and their home diocese of Venice, Florida and many other Catholic institutions. CIW is a member of the Florida State Catholic Conference's Committee on Farm worker Justice. CIW is not currently a CCHD grantee, but has earned wide respect in the Catholic community for their much needed work to protect the lives and dignity of the people who pick our food.
3. Another criticism focuses on the reference in the Report to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) because they offered workshops at the US Social Forum in Detroit which had other workshops in conflict with Catholic social and moral teaching. Here is what the CCHD Report said: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is an organization of Latino, and Haitian migrant farm workers in Florida. Working with the local diocese, the Florida Catholic Conference and many other groups, CIW has won groundbreaking agreements with major fast food chains to increase wages and improve better working conditions for their members who pick tomatoes."
In rejecting this guilt by association, CIW expressed regret that they were not contacted before these unfair charges were published and explained that the Immokalee Workers attended the Forum to draw support for their effort to get decent wages and working conditions for migrant workers, not to advance any other cause. The meeting drew a reported 15,000 members of numerous organizations and approximately 1000 different workshops led by a wide variety of groups. The CIW shared their efforts to improve conditions for farm workers and their Campaign for Fair Food aimed at ending poverty and modern-day slavery in the fields. They were a part of several related workshops which had nothing to do with abortion, homosexuality or related issues. CIW emphatically denies that it is implicated in the pro-abortion or homosexual rights activities of other organizations. The Immokalee Workers have joined with other groups to share conditions in the fields and seek assistance for their efforts to improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers, not to advance positions contrary to Catholic teaching. They have never supported abortion or same sex marriage. Their impressive efforts have had the active support of the USCCB Domestic Policy Committee, the Florida State Catholic Conference and their home diocese of Venice, Florida and many other Catholic institutions. CIW is a member of the Florida State Catholic Conference's Committee on Farm worker Justice. CIW is not currently a CCHD grantee, but has earned wide respect in the Catholic community for their much needed work to protect the lives and dignity of the people who pick our food.
Deal W. Hudson is the director of the Morley Institute, and is the former publisher of CRISIS Magazine, a Catholic monthly published in Washington, DC. His articles and comments have been published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, National Review, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Village Voice, Roll Call, National Journal, The Economist, and by the Associated Press. He appears regularly on television shows such as NBC Nightly News, One-on One with John McLaughlin, C-Span's Washington Journal, News Talk, NET's Capitol Watch, The Beltway Boys, The Religion and Ethics Newsweekly on PBS, and radio programs such as "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio. He was associate professor of Philosophy at Fordham University from 1989 to 1995 and was a visiting professor at New York University for five years. He taught for nine years at Mercer University in Atlanta, where he was chair of the philosophy department. He has published many reviews and articles as well as four books: Understanding Maritain: Philosopher and Friend (Mercer, 1988); The Future of Thomism (Notre Dame, 1992); Sigrid Undset On Saints and Sinners (Ignatius, 1994); and Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996). His autobiography, An American Conversion (Crossroad, 2003), is available from Amazon.com.
