The US Conference of Catholic Bishops receives millions of dollars each year to place thousands of refugees (including many Muslims in your towns) and we have long argued that your tax dollars should not be paid to federal contractors masquerading as religious charities.
One day they will have to decide between cold hard federal cash and their moral principles!
So no sympathy here as the ACLU files suit against the Bishops for accepting taxpayer dollars and then restricting abortions and contraceptive availability to the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ in their care. When they take Caesar’s money, they must follow Caesar’s rules! They can’t have it both ways!
From Life News.com:
For decades, U.S. Catholic agencies have been on the front lines helping to provide young immigrants and refugees with the physical and emotional support they need after they arrive in America.
But a new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union could put the much-needed aid programs in jeopardy.
The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing that the government should not give money to the Catholic aid programs because they do not refer or provide abortions or birth control to young, unaccompanied minor refugees and immigrants, the New York Times reports. The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that the agencies are legally required to provide access to contraception and abortion because they receive government funding.
[….]
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,which oversees the agencies, received almost $10 million in government funding to help unaccompanied minor immigrants and refugees in 2014, according to the report.
[….]
ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Brigitte Amiri said, “We are shocked and deeply concerned to see history repeating itself with millions of taxpayer dollars funneled into the hands of a religious group that has a long history of refusing critical health care services to the most vulnerable people in their care.”
This “critical health care” is talking about abortion, which, by not supporting, lets the group “impose their religious beliefs on others,” according to the ACLU.
Shocked to find out—Surprise!—that we aren’t resettling Syrian Christians, but mostly Sunni Muslims. I have no sympathy for his position now because he was so willfully blind for at least the last two decades about where this UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program was taking America. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has been a long time supporter of the UNHCR and its work to bring refugees to America.
Here is a bit of the news from a stunned Smith at CNS News:
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Thursday that it was “unconscionable” that of the record 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in the first three weeks of May, not one was a Christian.
Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson cited that number, reported by CNSNews.com on Monday, in his testimony on the urgent needs facing Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria.
Smith was speaking at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on what steps should be taken following Secretary of State Kerry’s March declaration that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians and other religious minorities.
“They can’t even get into a UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] or IDP [internally displaced persons] camp or a refugee camp, are unwanted, at risk,” Smith said of the Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Someone should really do a full accounting of Smith’s unwavering support for more refugees for your towns and cities (he has been the Republican darling of the refugee industry and its advocates), but I don’t have the time. Here is just one bit I found (in a quick search) from a New York Times story about Smith from 1997 (Crusader and pragmatist!):
…. an anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has attacked him for his efforts to open American borders to more political refugees.
Does he understand that his beloved Catholic Bishops are leading the pack in ‘welcoming’ Muslims to America?
Not enough hours in the day to keep up anymore. The US State Department and its contractors are on a roll trying to set up new resettlement sites to accommodate Obama’s increased numbers especially the mostly Syrian Muslims on the way. Frank Head (Catholic Charities) left, helped start a new group Canopy NWA for the purpose of creating a new refugee resettlement office in northwest Arkansas. http://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/4641/Canopy-group-will-make-sure-refugees-are-covered
Here is news from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
Arkansas took in about 1 out of every 1 million refugees who sought shelter worldwide last year — 13 of the 14.5 million refugees accounted for by the United Nations.
A local group called Canopy NWA wants to raise that number despite a contentious atmosphere about the country’s obligation to alleviate what the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees has called a severely unfair burden on a few countries.
[….]
“We’re talking about one or two families a month,” Frank Head of Catholic Charities said at the group’s May 4 meeting. “People wouldn’t even notice if we didn’t talk about it.” [I am sure they would like to get the refugee flow moving before people start talking about it!—ed]
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is one of the nine charitable organizations authorized to accept refugees into the country through agreements with the U.S. Department of State.
The group operates in Northwest Arkansas through Catholic Charities Immigration Services. Catholic Charities sent a representative to the May 4 meeting, held at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville. So did the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, another of the nine authorized groups.
Nina Zelic, director for refugee services for the Lutheran organization, told the dozen interested attendees her group is evaluating the region as a potential site for opening another chapter.
We’ve been telling you lately about how the federal government and its refugee contractors are out scouting new locations to expand the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program to your towns and cities. They are desperate for new sites as older sites are overloaded and pushback from concerned citizens is growing.
We recently told you aboutRutland, VT and Reno, NV, (in April it was Ithaca, NY) so it was no surprise to see news about the Eugene, OR (Lane County) area getting Syrian refugees. However, as I read the story and went back to earlier stories, the plot thickened! No mention is made of the fact that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is a federal refugee contractor paid millions of dollars each year to seed refugees into American towns and cities.
The story that I saw first thing this morning is this one about a Catholic Charities being asked by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to take a few Syrians and Burmese refugees soon (usual fairly straightforward strategy).
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.- In a few months, Lane County will gain three new families with the help of Catholic Community Services of Lane County.
These families are refugees from Syria and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
After that, Lane County will continue to gain 7 to 10 new refugee families each year.
Catholic Community Services Executive Director Tom Mulhern says the US Conference of Catholic Bishops called Catholic Community Services, asking them to help facilitate a refugee program in Lane County.
Demand transparency!
Be sure if you live in this area to contact Catholic Community Services and your local elected officials and ask for a copy of the R & P Abstractfor Eugene/Springfield. Don’t know what that is, please readour recent post on Reno! As a taxpayer, you are entitled to all the facts on the new resettlement site. But, then get this! Are we seeing the United Nations new ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS being put in motion to build the Syrian community in Lane County? This is Welcoming America’s slide presentation on the idea of seeding your towns with immigrants and refugees. I did not make this up!
Here is what I found when I looked around some more:
The ‘seedling’ for this new community is a Syrian ‘refugee’ named Ali Turki Ali who was ‘discovered’ by a longtime US State Department employee named Mark Ward working in Turkey.
Although Ali was apparently perfectly safe in Turkey, he was interested in going to Europe, but Ward convinced him to go to America instead.
You really need to read the article.
But, then this is something I have never heard of and makes me wonder if this is part of the new strategy to get Syrians in to the US. Ali was told that he would need a private sponsor and Ward’s 25-year-old son Peter would do the job. So some ‘twenty-something’ can vouch for a newly arrived Muslim refugee? When did that policy come into practice?
“You will need a sponsor wherever you go,” Ward said.
“I know one American,” Ali said. “You. And you’re not in the United States.”
“I know an American who could be your sponsor,” Ward said. “My son, Peter.”
A sponsor is someone who agrees to watch over a refugee for their first six months in the country. The sponsor helps a refugee find a place to live and learn about the community.
Mark Ward showed Ali a map of Oregon. It might as well have been a photograph of Mars.
“And that same look came over his face,” Ward says.
“And then I had to convince (Lutheran Community Services) in Portland that I wanted him in Eugene, and that wasn’t easy,” Ward says. Lutheran Community Services is Ali’s receiving agency in Oregon and one of three refugee resettlement agencies in the state, according to Evans, the state DHS spokesman.
“We want him in Portland,” Ward recalls the agency saying. “Where we can keep an eye on him.”
So, guess what, Ali went to Eugene, and subsequently the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has set up a new resettlement agency—-Catholic Community Services of Lane County—and presto! Ali’s extended family will be the first to arrive for the new resettlement site! We learn herethat because his two brothers have a relative in the area (Ali!) they are on the way to Eugene, Oregon. So plant the first refugee seedling and more will come!
About the seedling photo: Go here and learn where that came from.
Editor: As long-time readers know we have a category of posts here at RRW entitled ‘Comments worth noting/guest posts’ and today we bring you this comment from reader ‘hogswithdogs’ to our post ‘So much for the Pope’s power of persuasion’here.
From our reader:
ATTENTION CATHOLIC READERS!
The USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) has launched a National Catholic-Muslim dialogue. Partners include ISNA and the Islamic Circle of North America. Inter-faith dialogue is not new as CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) is active in the churches trying to seek ‘common ground’ and ‘building bridges’. Per Stephen Coughlin, they view the bridge as one way – us travelling to their side as they have no interest in Christianity.
Learn more here: http://blueridgeforum.com/?p=13120
My assumption is that you will hear more about this in your churches and the priests will be encouraged by their bishops to seek this ‘understanding’. How does this relate to this article? “Good question.”
Is the pope setting the tone for this dialogue? Is the pope setting an example that he wants us to follow? Will we see a push in the parishes to “adopt” Syrians sent to the United States by the UN?
What about the persecuted Christians? Our government is ignoring their plight. CHRISTIANS ARE PERSECUTED BY THE ‘REFUGEES’ THAT THE ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO RESETTLE IN THE UNITED STATES!
Talk to your priests and fellow parishioners. Pray for persecuted Christians and let them know that the persecution is at the hands of Islam by the people that the UN will be sending to the United States!
‘Hogswithdogs’ then directs us to the USCCB website herefrom February of this year where we learn of the church snuggling up to the Muslim Brotherhood in America:
The current regional Catholic-Muslim dialogues are the Mid-Atlantic (partnering with the Islamic Circle of North America), Midwest (partnering with the Islamic Society of North America) and West Coast (partnering with the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County). Each is co-chaired by a bishop and a Muslim leader from the corresponding regional organization. These dialogues will continue to meet and will work collaboratively with the members of the new national dialogue.
It is no wonder so many are drifting away from the Catholic church and that we have beautiful churches, like the one in Syracuse,becoming mosques.
