The Bellarmine Veritas Ministry

 The Bellarmine Veritas Ministry attracted attention in Catholic circles a few weeks ago for an outstanding report about five recent Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) grantees about which there was “indisputable and conclusive evidence from multiple sources” showing that they were “acting directly in support of grave evils condemned by the Catholic Church.”

None of the five, one must point out, are associated with ACORN, which has recently been pulled from the CCHD teat thanks to an embezzlement scandal and numerous incidents of voter fraud.

Among the five identified by the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry as supportive of grave evils was the San Francisco based Chinese Progressive Association, which received CCHD funding despite its public support of and legal action on behalf of abortion and same-sex marriage legislation

Another of the five was the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), which coordinates the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition (DWAC) and shares leadership in the Coalition with Downtown Women’s Center and SRO Housing. Not only has LA CAN worked to support same-sex marriage, through a monthly clinic offered by the Downtown Women’s Center, it promotes access to emergency contraception and “family planning.”

The CCHD-funded Rebecca Project for Human Rights and its founder have gone on record in support of abortion, signing a “wish list” of reproductive priorities for President Obama that includes comprehensive sex education, federally affordable birth control and “abortion care,” restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and $1 billion for international family planning programs, among other things.

CCHD also gave several grants to the Women’s Community Revitalization Project, which is part of the WomenVote PA coalition, seeking to advance a “progressive Pennsylvania women’s agenda” that includes abortion “rights.”

Lastly, CCHD granted Young Worker’s United, which released a 2008 voting guide against parental notification and supportive of same-sex marriage and decriminalized prostitution. It also supported the “Forward, Not Back—Reproductive Justice for All!” 2008 march.

Now CCHD has defunded two of these groups in response to the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry report (the Chinese Progressive Association and Young Worker’s United) and did not give any funding to the Rebecca Project for Human Rights according to the 2009 CCHD grantee list…but meanwhile, the report demonstrates, two of the five offending grantees were funded again and dozens of other CCHD grantees are campaigning for the current version – including its pro-abortion features - of health care reform. This is problematic.

But we’re not finished. Bellarmine Veritas Ministry is also considering what it calls “borderline cases” – groups that are less flagrantly involved with “support of grave evils condemned by the Catholic Church” yet, nevertheless, are uncomfortably comfortable with these evils.

For example, there’s Preble Street, which operates a day shelter offering “family planning services.” Or the PICO affiliated San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP) that has supported the creation of health clinics providing family planning and emergency contraception services to adults and minors.

And there’s more. The Bellarmine Veritas Ministry has posted part two of its report, which is every bit as troubling as part one. Evidently, this is what it takes for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to break with a collection that was founded to support progressive political “change.” God have mercy on us.

The Bellarmine Veritas Ministry reports can be found at bellarmineveritasministry.org.

Stephanie Block is the editor of the New Mexico-based Los Pequenos newspaper and a founder of the Catholic Media Coalition.