A Minnesota nonprofit that assists beginner and rural farmers lost
its grant funding from the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference when the
conference learned it was a member of two Minnesota groups that oppose
Minnesota's marriage amendment, an amendment the church supports.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the bishops' domestic
anti-poverty program, did not cut funding because of something the Land
Stewardship Project did, but "because they don't like whom we associate
with," said Mark Schultz, the project's associate director/policy and
organizing director.
The organization, which helps sustain rural farms and has an office
within the Winona, Minn., diocese, is an organizational member of two
large nonprofits: Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and TakeAction
Minnesota. Those two organizations, while their missions do not involve
same-sex marriage, have taken stances against the marriage amendment.
On Nov. 6, Minnesotans will vote on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between one man and one woman.
"We have no position on that," Schultz said. "We don't do any work on that."
Although Land Stewardship Project does not have a position on the
marriage amendment and belongs to the two organizations for other
reasons, it is because of these relationships CCHD revoked the project's
$48,000 grant this summer.
But Schultz, who is Catholic, thinks CCHD is wrong.
"We're not in violation of the contract because it's not the purpose
or agenda of these groups to do something about marriage," he said.
The Land Stewardship Project and CCHD have a long history together,
Schultz said. He estimated the bishops' agency has given them 15 or so
grants in the past, and he appreciates the work the bishops' agency
does.
"This is really difficult for us," he said.
Under CCHD grant guidelines, a group is ineligible if it "promotes or
participates in activities that support principles contrary to Catholic
Teaching or work against the USCCB's priorities to defend the life and
dignity of all human persons, to strengthen family life and the
institution of marriage, and to nurture diversity."
The Land Stewardship Project, which has offices in southern
Minnesota, was founded in 1982 "to foster an ethic of stewardship for
farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable
communities."
Schultz said the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, which has 2,000
members, helps organizations be better nonprofits, and TakeAction
Minnesota -- which has 14,000 individual and 29 organizational
dues-paying members -- works on health care reform, which relates to the
farm organization's work because many of its members are "underinsured,
uninsured, and paying huge amounts of money to insurance corporations."
The Land Stewardship Project, when listing its affiliations on the
application, evaluated if its memberships would be a violation of the
CCHD contract, Schulz said, but decided they would not because none of
the Land Stewardship Project's work with the two organizations involved
the marriage amendment and because the separation was so distant it
would not be a problem. However, CCHD disagreed.
CCHD director Ralph McCloud told NCR the agency has given
grants to the Land Stewardship Project multiple times since about 1989,
and he noted the project's "tremendous work over the years." However,
its affiliation with the two organizations made it ineligible for a
grant this year, he said.
When the Winona diocese contacted the bishops' conference this
summer, CCHD looked into what constitutes a membership in the two
organizations: "Is it dues paying, do you support the activities of the
group, what activities do you work together on, do you enhance the group
by your presence there -- those kinds of things," McCloud said.
McCloud said that as CCHD understood it, the Land Stewardship Project
was a dues-paying member. The group gave the Land Stewardship Project
time to cut ties with the two groups in order to keep the grant. The
Land Stewardship Project deliberated but decided to keep its
memberships.
Joel Hennessy, director of mission advancement for the Winona
diocese, said the Land Stewardship Project does "wonderful work," and
the diocese "is sad that people have to suffer." He said he is hopeful
the relationship can one day continue.
Since at least 2007, the Land Stewardship Project has received
$30,000 or more in grant money from CCHD, according to the group's grant
reports.
In recent years, CCHD has come under attack from groups that say the
bishops' agency funds programs that are inconsistent with Catholic
teaching.
A coalition group called Reform CCHD Now compiled information
on possible violations with the Land Stewardship Project using CCHD's
guidelines and sent the findings to the Winona diocese, said Michael
Hichborn of the American Life League, one of the organizations in the
coalition.
Founded in 2009, Reform CCHD Now works "to shine the light on the
problem of Catholic funds going to organizations that promote abortion,
birth control, homosexuality and even Marxism," according to its latest
report on its website.
After renewing its grant guidelines in 2010, CCHD has been more vigilant, resulting in cut grants for some groups.
For the 2012-2013 funding year, 214 organizations received more than
$9.1 million from grants, according to Catholic News Service. The CCHD
church collection is typically the weekend before Thanksgiving, Nov.
17-18 this year.
McCloud said there have been discussions on whether CCHD needs
stricter guidelines to eliminate confusion on eligibility. Part of the
problem, he said, is the sudden appearance of marriage amendments on
organizations' agendas.
CCHD encourages collaboration to end poverty, McCloud said.
"That's a virtue when you're able to work across different types of
lines and come together to work on an agenda that deals with persons who
are in poverty. That's important to us. But to work with organizations
who are working against some of the things that we're teaching, the
tradition that we have -- we just have no tolerance for that."