Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has denied that the agency was
directly involved in the distribution of contraceptives in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last week the Lepanto Institute released a detailed report, showing
that CRS—the official overseas relief agency of the US bishops’
conference—had “received, stored, and dispensed millions of
contraceptives, including condoms, oral contraceptives, injectable
contraceptives, intra-uterine devices, and even surgical sterilization
kits.”
The Lepanto report was based on government documents and
inventory reports.
While conceding that the documents “do indeed seem to show CRS as
receiving contraceptives,” the agency claimed that “unclear wording” had
created an inaccurate impression.
The agency said that the reports used
by the Lepanto Institute had been prepared by “another organization
that did not understand how important absolute clarity on this point is
to CRS.”
CRS said that anyone concerned about the report should be reassured
by “the twelve bishops on our board, the USCCB, and the Congolese
bishops’ conference who all continue to stand by us.”
Father Shenan Boquet, the president of Human Life International,
described the CRS response to its critics as “insulting.”
He said: “Not
one single person who knows how those reports work would deny that they
entail birth/population control as a matter of course.”