(National Catholic Reporter) The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions.

“There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.”

The Vatican initiated the study in January, saying its purpose is to determine the quality of life in religious communities, given the decline in vocations in recent decades. From the outset, the women have complained they were never consulted before Vatican officials announced the investigation and there is no transparency in the process. Some have called the effort demeaning and intrusive.

NCR contacted more than a dozen women religious familiar with the responses. Almost no one would allow her name to be used, citing fear of reprisal against their congregations and the desire to have the apostolic visitator receive their letters before word of the actions became public.

She said women religious have been virtually unanimous in spirit that they have been living out their missions, as directed by the gospels and by the Second Vatican Council…
“Vatican II took us out of the ghettos and into ecology, feminism and justice in the world,” she said. “The Vatican still has a difficult time accepting that…” [reference]

Some sources have said that only on percent of these religious communities replied to the questionnaires. Not sure how no answer is going to do anything other than to show exactly why the Apostolic Visitation was needed in the first place. Rampant disobedience does not exactly show that there is not rampant disobedience. Though if they had answered the questionnaires truthfully they would have the same problems. But if they really believe that there way is the truth than they should not have a problem responding. The martyrs died for their faith, can’t even one of these dissidents standup up for what they believe is the truth? Trying to hide behind canon lawyers and other tricks is in no way a sign of obedience. Their actions are the actions of a guilty party who know that they are not on the right side. They are not the actions of innocents being guided by the Holy Spirit.

The Catholic Church, which heavily influenced and even authored language of the anti-abortion language in the health care bill in the House, in clear violation of the constitution, has escalated its war over the separation of church and state by barring Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving communion by Catholic Bishop of Rhode Island Thomas Tobin.

Tobin’s barring of Kennedy was the result of Kennedy’s criticism of the church for threatening to oppose health care reform unless it contained tighter restrictions on abortion.

Now just how many things can you get wrong in an article? Well this reporter is going for a world record. Clear violation of the Constitution? Gee the part about religious group not being able to speak up about legislation in not in my copy of the Constitution. The author goes on to talk about Thomas Jefferson and his famous phrase. Gee I was also unaware that Jefferson’s letters were part of the Constitution. Though of course his letter to the Danbury Baptists on the wall between Church in state was about the government not being able to interfere with the churches, not vice versa. But liberals can’t be troubled by facts when popular myths are all they need.

The reporter also did not find out that the letter to Rep Kennedy by Bishop Tobin is actually sent in 2007, so it was not a result of the Healthcare Debate as it is being framed in so many stories. The Boston Globe reports:

Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

Kennedy did not say where or how he received those instructions. He declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop’s request.

“The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

,,Tobin said in a statement Sunday that he “has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese.”

If Bishop Tobin had told his pastors not to give him Communion two years ago surely the story would have leaked out. So I wold say that Rep. Kennedy is not being honest about that part. Though if the Bishop did indeed write this letter in 2007 I wish that he would also have instructed his pastors about this.

It looks like Bishop Tobin was doing the same thing that Archbishop Joseph Naumann did in regard to Gov. Sebelius who was told not to present herself before Communion, but that priests were not instructed to deny Communion if she went forward.

Being only an armchair bishop I have wondered why if you instruct a person to not receive Communion why you wouldn’t instruct priests, deacons, and EMHC to not give Communion to those persons if they put themselves forward. Though maybe it is not necessary if the person does not go forward for Communion. Rep. Kennedy will not say whether he has followed the Bishop’s instructions or not.

Being that the fast forward button on my DVR is my friend I don’t see many commercials, but I saw this one. This commercial could be the dictionary entry for relativism.

86 the rules, you do what just feels right.

Ah, the very meaning of Christmas. Christ was born into the world so that we could just do what feels right. Hey I feel like beating up the producers of this commercial, think they would mind?

Of course any mention of the made up holiday by a convicted torturer (aka Kwanzaa) annoys me, but now we even get Solstice added to the list. As if when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun has anything to do with shopping at the Gap. Or is it that Solstice Claus will come this year on the 21st of December. How many children will wake up disappointed with their tilt of the earth gifts.

This commercial by trying to be multiculturally sensitive become culturally insensitive. So often attempts at inoffensiveness become offensive.

We have heard of “God of the Gaps” arguments, well these commercials are evidence that there is no God in the Gap stores, just smarmy multiculturalism.

Deacon Greg Kandra posts asking Is the Gap ad anti-Christmas? and reports that some of now boycotting Gap because of the commercial. Is the ad anti-Christmas? Well it was certainly not meant to be so. Relativism is never really anti-anything in theory – just in practice. Though really all commercializations of Christmas are to some extent anti-Christmas in that they totally miss the point that a savior came into the world to save us from our sins.

I was wondering if there would be a 2009 Tossmas and sure enough there is.

The above video by RealCatholicTV makes some claims that it fails to bring facts to in what CCHD is supporting such as prostitution. It mainly points out connections between George Soros, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and people involved with CCHD and other Soros sponsored groups. Certainly it says a lot that people who headed CCHD were also involved in Obama excuse making groups. It certainly seems to me that many associated with CCHD are more than just sympathetic to Alinsky style community organizing and the types of groups that Moveon.org founder George Soros would support. It also is no surprise that many working within the USCCB have been inclined to supporting the Democratic Party. The joke that the Bishops conference is the “Democratic Party at prayer” certainly had some merit – though not as much as it once did. Catholics being reflexively part of any political party is not what it once was.

Though while I don’t see the above video being as damning as it intended. I certainly see a real scandal within the CCHD that needs much more of an overhaul than so far planned. Though to be honest if the CCHD in its present incarnation was to disappear entirely I would not shed a tear.

With the collection coming up tomorrow it is unfortunate that the “Currently Funded Projects” page for CCHD at the USCCB sites is now “Not Found.” It could actually be a server order, but the disappearance is rather timely.

Though the list off 2008 grants is available. Since before I came into the Church ten years ago I was aware of the scandal surround CCHD and that they were funding groups that were well outside Catholic truth. Long before ACORN came to the front in the nation’s attention I had known to some extent that were more an arm of the Democratic Party than a group that was really making inroads into helping the poor and of course the stench of voter’s fraud has been around them for years. It was not until I looked at the above list that I saw the full extent of the problem.

Bishop Morin had some very strong words about critics of the CCHD and said “The subcommittee report cited three cases — out of 250 funded groups during the last year — in which funding was terminated and the groups were asked to repay any grant funds that were spent.” This certainly makes it sound like the problem is limited to a couple bad apple groups and it might even be true that the majority of these groups are not themselves supporting abortion, contraception, homosexual marriage, etc – at least not publicly as part of their mission.

But as Gibbons J. Cooney pointed out the other day one of the funded groups “The San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP)” not only gives out so-called emergency contraception. It did not take me but a minute to determine that they are also involved in “Family Planning/Reproduction Health services.” Does anybody believe that they are teaching married couples NFP and being open children? Or that the “Confidential/Sensitive services for youths ages 12 to 21” falls into advice anywhere within magisterial teaching. So contrary to what Bishop Morin said it certainly appears that that the CCHD is still funding groups that in their day-to-day business deny Catholic truth.

Though what shocked me the most when going over last years list is that out of 250 organizations there was really not even one that I would consider giving money to or supporting myself. The briefs for these groups so often include buzz words right out of the far left’s lexicon and of course call themselves nonpartisan and multi-about-everything. The main business seems to be training people about victimology and leader training which seems to be geared towards creating even more leaders in the community organizing effort. The reason the President never bragged about his time as a community organizer is that the communities he organized were just as disorganized as when he started helping them. What are the success stories of the community organizing movement? Since the sixties exactly what are the neighborhoods they have transformed? I would certainly think the MSM would have said something about such a marvelous achievement if it had happened. Much has been said about Saul Alinsky the Communist/ Marxist founder of the community organizing movement. It appears more to me to be about community agitation for political purposes than really helping the poor. They talk a lot about root causes of poverty, but don’t seem to have an actual clue as to what they are other than it is somebody else’s fault.

Now maybe some of these groups listed actually do some good – well God can bring good out of evil and even community organizing! It is just that the approach taken by almost all of these groups really does not appear to have much similarity with Catholic social teaching. They all seem to be on the far left of the political spectrum and I just can’t see any of these groups having so-called religious or social conservatives on their boards. They call themselves non-partisan, but none of the groups supported fall anywhere within a conservative answer to helping the poor. But then again politicization is not what we need – weed need to help our brothers and sister among the poor and I don’t see how these groups are actually doing this. Like the Great Society of LBJ it is pretty much a total failure.

That the CCHD does not give any money to specifically Catholic groups helping the poor is rather strange. Plus of course not one dime goes to Emergency Pregnancy Centers. The St. Vincent dePaul Society does great work at the parish and diocesan level and actually interact with and help the poor, yet they don’t receive one dime either.

When I first read the following statement I found at And Sometimes Tea I thought it a bit harsh. Matthew Vadum at The American Spectator says:

The charitable arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, CCHD has never provided direct relief to the poor. That’s not its purpose.

CCHD is an extreme left-wing political organization that was created to feed and foster radical groups, but most Catholics are blissfully unaware of its true mission. CCHD says right on its website that it aims to support “organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power.”

After looking over the list I think it is all to true. In my opinion Blessed Mother Teresa would not have been given funding by the CCHD.

So even if all the groups CCHD was giving funding to stopped the intrinsically evil things that some of them do indeed support, I would still not give the CCHD a dime. On a prudential level I think the groups they are supporting are not directly helping the poor and I would much rather give directly to groups that are and that see the poor not as victims, but neighbors.

Some of the links I used were borrowed from And Sometimes Tea which had an excellent post on this subject.