Catholic anti-poverty program funding LGBT groups: report

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ national anti-poverty program has provided over three-quarters of a million dollars over the course of 20 years to an organization that advocates for sex-change surgeries, abortion and same-sex marriage, according to a report.

In its November report, the Lepanto Institute warned that the USCCB’s program, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, has provided 16 grants totaling $760,000 to the United Workers Association since 2004. 

UWA, which has advocated for sex-change surgeries and abortion to be covered through Medicare, also received a $25,000 grant for the 2024-2025 CCHD funding year, according to the Lepanto Institute’s report. 

“Given what we are about to present, it is abundantly clear that UWA is solidly pro-LGBT — even to the point of advocating for publicly-funded sex-change surgeries — and it is currently operating through two proxy organizations of its own creation that are openly promoting abortion, birth control, funding for Planned Parenthood, and LGBT ideologies, including the public-funding of sex-change operations,” the report stated. 

The Lepanto Institute has called for the “complete and permanent closure of the CCHD,” citing the program’s alleged “failure to protect Catholic funds and refusal to recognize and acknowledge gross violations of Catholic moral and social teaching.”

Michael Hitchborn, president of the Lepanto Institute, told The Christian Post that the CCHD is in “clear violation” of its own grant guidelines, which state that, to qualify for CCHD funds, an organization “must not promote, in any way, activities that work against Catholic values.” 

CCHD also promises that its “grants to local anti-poverty efforts are screened, awarded and monitored in close partnership with local Catholic dioceses.”

Hitchborn told CP that he had met with USCCB staffers about the issue on several occasions over the course of two years. In 2010, Hitchborn and one of his associates met with John Carr, the then-USCCB’s director for Justice, Peace, and Human Development, and Ralph McCloud, the then-USCCB’s executive director for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. 

During the meeting, the Lepanto Institute president warned that UWA is one of the organizations listed on Equality Maryland’s website that “oppose any amendment to the Maryland constitution that would ban civil marriage and its vital protection for same-sex couples.”

“Carr claimed in 2010 that someone within the organization had signed them up with Equality Maryland without authorization, which was a plausible explanation at the time, and since we didn’t have any counter information, let it ride for the moment,” Hitchborn told CP. 

The following year, however, Hitchborn and his associate met with the same USCCB staffers, this time to discuss a CCHD grantee called National People’s Action (NPA), which had signed a letter in support of Planned Parenthood. 

“Carr explained to us that NPA didn’t sign the letter, but some low-level employee signed NPA onto that letter without authorization. I asked Carr if it was possible that NPA lied to him about this, and he said, ‘I don’t think so.’”

Hitchborn and his associate then produced board minutes from UWA that confirmed the organization’s decision to partner with Equality Maryland. 

“So, we reminded Carr that he made a similar excuse for UWA the previous year, and his only response to this was, ‘Well, that was my theory at the time,’” Hitchborn said.  

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.

As the Indypendent Reader reported in 2012, UWA is a co-sponsor of an organization called “Healthcare is a Human Right – Maryland,” which advocates for abortion. On its website, the healthcare advocacy group cites a February 2009 fact sheet that references “reproductive healthcare,” a euphemism for “abortion.” 

According to the fact sheet, advocates for “reproductive health care in the United States can find strong support for their work in the principles underlying the human right to health.”

In addition to the fact sheet, the Lepanto Institute’s report cited multiple HHR-MD statements on social media that referred to abortion as a “human right” and the banning of abortion as “unconstitutional.”

The other proxy cited in the report — Put People First – Pennsylvania — lists UWA as its fiscal sponsor on its 2024 end-of-year fundraising campaign and its 2020 fundraising campaign. The Lepanto Institute’s report expressed concerns about PPF-PA championing abortion and transgenderism, as well as its collaboration with groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation. 

PPF-PA’s activities in support of abortion include marching in June 2017 for Planned Parenthood, where they called for “reproductive justice.” One of PPF-PA’s members, Farrah Marie, also spoke in favor of Planned Parenthood at the same event, according to a 2017 X post. 

In June 2023, PPF-PA also co-hosted an event with the Kairos Center titled “Season of Jubilee: Trans Healthcare is a Human Right.”

The description for the event said that participants will “testify that God’s love extends to all people, and that gender-affirming and sexual healthcare are a part of what we all deserve in God’s justice, and that the poor and afflicted are agents of their own well-being,” highlighting verses from Isaiah 56:1-8 and Mark 5:24-34. 

CCHD provided the funding to UWA. UWA is the fiscal sponsor for PPF-PA, and is ‘responsible’ for PPF-PA’s Facebook page. PPF-PA, on its Facebook page, promoted abortion, Planned Parenthood, and sex-change surgeries,” Hitchborn told CP. 

“Since the CCHD says that it will not fund organizations promoting such things, this is a clear violation of CCHD grant guidelines, but more to the point, the funding is direct because the actions committed by PPF-PA are directly related to the actions of UWA,” the Lepanto Institute president added. 

“PPF-PA is a proxy organization of UWA, so they should be considered, morally speaking, as the same entity,” he argued.