This wasn’t an “April Fool” … it is a rerun of a post which ran a little over a week ago, as a warning that the Catholic Relief Services Collection was coming up (Yesterday! March 31st) and to ‘beware.’  So, if you missed the warning and gave ‘automatically’ in the second collection in some Churches yesterday, this message really is for you, and hopefully  to recharge the power of the laity to discern what is right and what is not. And to live by that discernment.

For those who think they never have anything to say in confession, try this: “Bless me Father for I have sinned — I donated to Catholic Relief Services (or to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.)”

In case you missed an article earlier this week on the ticker, here is a follow-up LifeSiteNews story:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-bishops-are-lobbying-congress-to-spend-millions-on-abortion-contraception?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=ecc5a39a00-Daily%2520Headlines%2520-%2520U.S._COPY_466&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-ecc5a39a00-401405341   

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — “Why is a 501(c)(3), whose purpose is to help Catholics support the poorest of the poor, lobbying Congress in the name of multiple secular organizations, for unqualified billions of taxpayer dollars? Michael Hichborn, founder of the Lepanto Institute, is asking that very question in order to hold so-called Catholic nonprofits — especially those supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — transparent and accountable to those who are often pressured from the pulpit to tithe to them. As churchgoing Catholics continue to hear preached the USCCB Bishop’s Appeal this Lent  — including those little “Rice Bowl” boxes targeting children — too few are aware of exactly where their tithes are going. The answer is directly to organizations supporting abortion, contraception, and even sterilization in the Third World….” 

Read rest of that article here:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/investigator-if-catholic-relief-services-supports-sin-faithful-must-withdraw-donations?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=b2aeae58e4-Daily%2520Headlines%2520-%2520U.S._COPY_468&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-b2aeae58e4-401405341

One need only “search” Cleansing Fire stories for “CRS” and “CCHD” (Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Campaign for Human Development) to find a number of stories over years, worrying about the real use of funds to those organizations, and why the USCCB seems so stubbornly  to push funding sinful activity onto Catholics who take seriously that they should support their Church. How can the USCCB not defend against such allegations? Perhaps because they can’t?

Of course, CRS has been exposed to significant moral duplicity over many years, unless one counts “once-upon-a-time Cardinal” McCarrick’s position as head of the CRS Foundation for the last 18 years as if it had no moral impact. See https://www.lepantoinstitute.org/catholic-relief-services-mccarrick-problem/  When I see those little rice bowls neatly lined up near the entrance to our churches, even THIS Lenten season, in the middle of a huge scandal, I want to put a warning notice on them: “Danger … donating to CRS may endanger souls.”

If dioceses solicit for organizations which abet sin, it seems reasonable to question such a diocese’s stewardship of funds in general, and therefore in other fundraising matters. The charges against CRS and CCHD are no secret; they have been around for years. Catholics have a right to expect good financial stewardship when funds are solicited; i.e. that a diocese and even a parish have done some due diligence on the moral worth of what is to be funded.  Fortunately, in such dire circumstances, it would appear that a Catholic who is convinced that certain solicitations are near occasions of sin, can still meet the Church’s precept for financial support by funding directly third world efforts, and many good, effective apostolates. Thus, they would fund the Church, that is the universal Church with a capital “C,”  even if not the little “c” church which solicits for sinful purposes.

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