Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay has announced the end of a
moratorium on local collections for the Catholic Campaign for Human
Development because of policy changes aimed at preventing grants to
groups whose actions contradict Catholic teaching.
“I am confident that we have the necessary checks in place that will
help us to be better informed and assist us in discerning grant requests
properly,” Bishop Ricken said in his seven-page Feb. 16 pastoral
statement.
The bishop noted “significant disagreement” about some of the
campaign's grants. Though the campaign has done “much good,” a few
organizations that received its funds acted in conflict with Catholic
teaching or had direct connections to coalitions which acted in
contradiction to Catholic principles of social justice.
There was also concern about the “appearance of partisan political
positions” some of these organizations had taken and whether this
reflected poorly upon the adherence of a parish or diocese to the U.S.
bishops’ guidelines for political involvement.
Bishop Ricken had ordered a moratorium on the collection in his
diocese pending further review by the U.S. bishops’ conference.
Five of
the campaign’s 270 grants made in 2010 were defunded once the U.S.
Bishops’
Conference became aware of the grantees’ conflicts with
Catholic teaching.
The new application process for grants will give “increased
consideration” to Catholic social justice organizations.
The
applications will first be considered at the local diocesan level and
will continue to require the local bishop’s permission before they
advance to the national level of the bishops’ conference.
Addressing parish involvement with local non-Catholic social justice
groups, Bishop Ricken also said parishes should cease their membership
in the community organizing groups JOSHUA and ESTHER.
ESTHER has worked
for Latino rights while JOSHUA has worked to address homelessness and
drug abuse.
Although he praised their “truly commendable” works, Bishop Ricken
cited concerns about the “lack of oversight” of non-Catholic groups
whose positions may be inconsistent with Catholic teaching.
Both groups are connected to a state-level organization called WISDOM
and a national organization called the Gamaliel Foundation.
ESTHER
became the subject of local controversy when an announcement from a
pro-abortion coalition appeared on its webpage.
The local, state and
national organizations immediately severed their connection to this
coalition.
The bishop said he is not forbidding individual parishioners from
being members of the organization and he is not barring parish groups
from working with them on “specific projects consistent with Catholic
Social Teaching.”
His action has prompted a review of all diocesan and parish
relationships with other organizations. He advised the pursuit of
project partnerships with other organizations rather than memberships.
Bishop Ricken’s letter also announced the creation of a commission to
lead the diocese in the teaching and implementation of Catholic social
teaching.
He stressed the “genuine need” to understand the social doctrine of the Church.
“The Catholic Church has one of the largest bodies of teaching on
charity and social justice of any organization in the world,” the bishop
explained.
“Much of this teaching is largely unknown by many Catholics
and the teaching is also often
misunderstood or misconstrued and
interpreted in a way that was not intended. Those who do acts of charity, he explained, need to consider how they
can be part of the solution to injustice on a “systemic level. Acts of
justice which are not rooted in charity, he cautioned, can “easily
become politicized and lose the connection to the Gospel mandate of
charity.”
The new Commission on Living Justice will help the diocese and its
individual parishes “live out the gospel message of justice and charity”
as outlined in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
Bishop Ricken
hoped that the commission will be established by early fall 2011.
The Diocese of Green Bay’s next collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development will take place on April 2.