Michael Hichborn: US Catholic Bishops Give $280,000 to LGBT and Abortion Activists
Point of Order: Amendment Would NOT Outlaw Abortions
November 1, 2018
Catholic Stand: Voting Catholic (4 Steps)
November 1, 2018
By Michael Hichborn, Lepanto Institute, 2018-10-31
Last week, the Lepanto Institute reported on $240,000 the CCHD provided to an LGBT-advocating organization in San Francisco. Click here to read the report.
For five consecutive years, from 2012-2017, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) annual granting agency called the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) provided a total of $280,000 to a radical organization involved in the promotion of homosexuality and abortion.
The Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) received the following grants:
It is important to note that this money was provided by every diocese in the United States that participates in the CCHD collection. Whenever a diocese takes up the CCHD collection (typically the third Sunday of November), 25% of that funding remains with the diocese while the other 75% goes to the National CCHD and is redistributed to groups like this one.
Last year, the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon gave a “Certificate of Recognition” to CAT signed by Bp. Peter Smith and Portland CCHD Director, Matt Cato. In a facebook posting of an image of this certificate, CAT said, “We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Catholic Campaign for Human Development for honoring us tonight and through the years.”
On October 31, 2016, the Archdiocesan office of Life, Justice and Peace produced a video promoting CAT, wherein the executive director says, “Without CCHD support, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
So, what DOES the Community Alliance of Tenants do?
CAT is on the Steering Committee of an Abortion Promoting Organization
Joined by organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice, and others, CAT is not only a member of, but is on the steering committee of an coalition called “Fair Shot For All.”
Fair Shot for All was founded in 2014 and is actively involved in the promotion of homosexuality and abortion. According to snapshots obtained through the internet archive site, the Wayback Machine, CAT joined Fair Shot for All sometime between August 21, 2016 and February 15, 2017. As a member of the Steering Committee of Fair Shot for All, CAT is directly responsible for the decisions, actions, and public positions taken by the coalition.
In this backgrounder from 2017, CAT directly participated in Fair Shot for All’s 2017 agenda, which specifically advocated for abortion. On page 1 of the flyer, 2 of the flyer, Fair Shot for All identifies “Reproductive Health Equity” wherein they identify access to abortion and providing “women’s reproductive services” to men who pretend to be women. It says:
Many are categorically denied health coverage due to their citizenship status. Others still face barriers to affordable birth control while high deductible plans are a serious pocketbook issue, leaving abortion inaccessible for many. In addition, transgender and gender-nonconforming people are often denied coverage for services often categorized as “women’s” health care because of the gender marker on their insurance card.
At the end of the page, Fair Shot for All says that it is standing up for “LGBTQ Communities” and identifies CAT as one of its members.
Currently, CAT (as represented by Fair Shot for All), stands in opposition to a ballot measure that would prohibit public funding from going to abortions.
Ballotopia shows that Ballot initiative 106 would ban public funding for abortion, showing what a yes vote indicates and what a no vote indicates. The Oregon Catholic Conference is identified as a supporter of the bill, and CAT’s coalition, Fair Shot for All, is standing with Planned Parenthood against it.
And just to illustrate what is happening here, to the left is an image of Katrina Holland, CAT’s executive director, at the Archdiocese of Portland, preparing represent CAT as it is honored as a CCHD grantee. To the right is Holland in a group photo from Dec. 2016 on Fair Shot for All’s facebook page, standing next to two women holding “Reproductive Health Equity” signs.
Now … before critics start complaining about how this is the action of a coalition, and not the organization being granted funding, it is important to remember two things.
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The CCHD grant guidelines which came out of the 2010 Review and Renewalspecifically state, “CCHD will not fund groups that are members of coalitions which have as their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.” CAT’s membership and presence on the steering committee of Fair Shot for All is a CLEAR violation of this grant guideline.
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In Catholic moral theology, there are nine ways by which an individual participates in the sin of another. As a member of Fair Shot for All’s steering committee, CAT is guilty of nearly all of them.
Either way, it is a grave scandal that CAT is receiving funding from the Catholic Church, based upon this issue alone. But this isn’t all.
CAT is on the Board of Directors of another Pro-Abortion, Pro-LGBT organization
The Community Alliance of tenants is represented on the Board of Directors of an organization called the Momentum Alliance.
On April 20, 2017, Multnomah County, Oregon passed a resolution to support insurance coverage for abortions due to the intervention of several groups, including the Momentum Alliance. 
On October 3 of this year, CAT’s board membership in the Momentum Alliance included this Reproductive Justice Youth Advocates program, which discussed “gender, sexuality, and sexual health.”
In March of 2017, CAT’s board membership in the Momentum Alliance included the endorsement of the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which forces insurance companies to cover birth control and abortion.
There’s a lot more about the Momentum Alliance, but this suffices to serve as a clear example of just how rotten this organization is. And again, this is something intimately participated in by the Community Alliance of tenants, a grantee of the US Bishops.
CAT Directly Promotes Homosexuality and Transgenderism
On June 16 of this year, an Instagram photo showed a booth representing the Community Alliance of Tenants at the Trans Rally in Portland.
On October 11 of this year, CAT held an event directed at attacking the conscience rights of land lords who would refuse to provide housing to same-sex couples. The event was titled, “Housing: Know your rights! LGBTQ plus Community Info Night.”
The event, which was co-sponsored by the Pride Foundation, Fair Housing Council of Oregon, Community Alliance of Tenants, Q Center, and Greater Portland Trans Unity!, was held at the Q Center itself.
According to the details of the event, spotlighted under CAT’s profile:
LGBTQ+ Spotlight
In November 2017, CAT’s Tenant Leadership Council (TLC) conducted a culturally specific focus group for the LGBTQ+ community. Read the results: Report http://tiny.cc/LGBTQ-CAT-Report and Flyer http://tiny.cc/LGBTQ-CAT
http://oregoncat.org/
The flyer, created by CAT, explicitly supports and promotes open homosexuality. The front of the flyer sports the rainbow flag, while the back states that CAT is leading the “Housing Justice Movement in the LGBTQ Community.” Also on the back of the flyer are several symbols of the homosexual movement, such as the rainbow flag, the transgender flag (pink, blue and white), and a sign that reads, “Love is Love.”
CAT’s Staff is full of LGBTQ and Reproductive “Rights” Activists
The LGBTQ activism on the part of CAT makes a lot of sense when you consider who they have on staff. CAT’s Community Engagement Coordinator is a woman named Jensi Albright. Albright has also served on CAT’s Board of Directors.
What CAT’s bio of Jensi Albright doesn’t say is that Albright is a homosexual activist that fought to change the marriage laws and obtained a same-sex “marriage” in 2012. The Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN) did a story on Albright and indicated that she “battled for a change to DOMA, for immigration reform including gay binational couples, and for marriage equality.” In 2012, after her “marriage,” she participated in a documentary about her fight to end the Defense of Marriage Act. In 2015, she and her partner received the “Portland Latino Gay Pride” award for homosexual activism.
But Jensi Albright isn’t the only homosexual activist listed on CAT’s staff roster.
Apparently preferring the personal pronoun “they,” Asher is identified on the roster as having a background in “queer and trans justice.”
CAT’s Tenant Education Coordinator is Daisy Quiñonez. Quiñonez, as we indicated earlier, represents CAT on the Board of the Momentum Alliance, an organization engaged in homosexual and reproductive “rights” activism.
Her bio indicates that she has a “background in grassroots and electoral organizing,” but what it doesn’t mention is that this includes working for Planned Parenthood. According to her Linkedin profile, prior to working for CAT, Daisy was a “Legislative Fellow” for Planned Parenthood. While her profile apparently hasn’t been updated since she was a program organizer at the Bus Project, we have been able to confirm that this is indeed the same person since the City of Portland identifiedQuiñonez as having worked at the Bus Project, and is currently working for CAT.
On July 6, 2017, the Momentum Alliance posted a brief Q&A with Quiñonez, wherein she identifies “reproductive justice” as one of the most important “social justice issues” to her.
Conclusion
Once again, the USCCB has been caught giving a pile of Catholic money to the enemies of Christ. And worse than that, the local CCHD has publicly honored this organization for its work. But as has been proved and catalogued, the Community Alliance of Tenants is staffed by homosexual and abortion activists, CAT has been directly involved in the promotion of homosexuality, and CAT is intimately involved with several coalitions that are acting directly against the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
It is appalling that such an organization would receive accolades and finances from the Catholic Church, but this just goes to show that once again, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is either failing to apply the “rigorous screening process” it claims to hold for CCHD grantees, or it is turning a willful, blind eye to egregious violations of CCHD grant guidelines and Catholic moral teaching. Either way, the CCHD has proven time and again that this issue will not be resolved, no matter how many bureaucratic layers it adds to its application process. So, it is time to end the program entirely. It is time to close down the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Contact the CCHD’s office and demand to know why this group was funded, and how it intends to rectify the matter.
NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Main Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3210
Fax Number . . . . . . . . . . 202-541-3329
Main Email . . . . . . . . . . cchdgrants@usccb.org
Ralph McCloud Director: 202-541-3367 rmccloud@usccb.org
Lydia Jiles Grants Administrator: 202-541-3210 ljiles@usccb.org
Sean Wendlinder Grant Specialist, Area E: 202-541-3212 swendlinder@usccb.org
ARCHDIOCESE OF PORTLAND
Mr. Matt Cato
Archdiocese of Portland
2838 East Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97214-1895
Phone: 503-233-8361
Fax: 503-234-2545
justicenandpeace@archdpdx.org
mcato@archdpdx.org
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