Update Nov. 23rd: Catholics fight back in Illinois!
And, now they are worried! The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the largest refugee resettlement federal contractor, is worried that as ACORN is investigated it might somehow drag the Catholic Church into the mess, possibly jeopardizing its tax exempt status. From the Catholic News Agency:
Washington DC, Nov 5, 2008 / 12:26 am (CNA).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has begun investigating the more than $1 million in church grants given to the voter registration group ACORN. Fearing the grants may have been used in partisan or fraudulent ways which could threaten the Church’s tax-exempt status, they have hired forensic accounting experts.
Workers with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) are being questioned by state officials and the FBI about voter registration forms they submitted with signatures from Mickey Mouse and members of the Dallas Cowboys football team, the Washington Times reports.
ACORN’s registration efforts target low-income neighborhoods believed to favor the Democrats. Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama himself once worked with ACORN as a community organizer and lawyer in Chicago.
According to the Washington Times, the Catholic Campaign on Human Development (CCHD) granted $1,037,000 to ACORN in 2007, including a $40,000 grant to an ACORN affiliate in Las Vegas that the Nevada attorney general’s office raided last month as part of a voter fraud investigation.
The CCHD has reportedly given more than $7.3 million to ACORN over the past decade for about 320 projects.
I’m guessing this is a CYA move. You know “cover your ….” because you know that the Catholic Bishops are in the tank for all these leftwing outfits. Look at this line-up:
The CCHD receives about $9.4 million each year in second collections from Catholic churches. This year’s collection for CCHD will take place on November 23. According to the Washington Times, such donations go to anti-poverty groups, interfaith associations, peace and justice groups, immigrant aid groups, environmental coalitions, labor rights groups and housing coalitions.
Note to my fellow conservative Catholics, find a local charity and give directly!