Much to its surprise, the Catholic League recently learned that left-wing activist and billionaire George Soros is the man behind two ultra-liberal Catholic groups, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United. Both organizations claim to be pro-life while supporting mostly pro-abortion candidates for public office.
In 2003, after Soros (who is Jewish) blamed Jews for anti-Semitism, the ADL branded his comments “obscene.” Two years later, the Catholic League accused him of anti-Catholicism: His group, MoveOn.org, posted a picture of a smiling Pope Benedict XVI holding a gavel outside the U.S. Supreme Court, along with the following inscription: “God Already Has a Job…He does not need one on the Supreme Court.”
Now we have found out that this same bigot is connected to two apologists for abortion rights, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United.
In 2006, Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) gave Catholics in Alliance $100,000 (double the amount he gave in 2005), and in the same year Catholics in Alliance listed Catholics United on its 990 as an organization with which it has a formal relationship.
John Podesta, who runs the Soros-funded organization, Center for American Progress, and has been appointed to run President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, admits that he works closely with Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United. The Center for American Progress is also the sponsor of Faith and Public Life.
Why would any Catholic organization take money from a man like Soros? Because legitimate sources of revenue aren’t available? And why would Soros have any interest in funding Catholic groups? He doesn’t give the Catholic League any money, and if he offered, we would refuse it.
The reason Soros funds the Catholic Left is the same reason he funds Catholics for Choice, the pro-abortion group that has twice been condemned as a fraud by Catholic bishops: they all service his agenda, namely, to make support for abortion rights a respectable Catholic position.
Just before we exposed the Soros-Catholic Left nexus, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput accused Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United as doing a “disservice” to the Catholic Church. He was right. Bill Donohue then told the press, “And now we know what really makes them tick.”
It didn’t take long before the Catholic Left struck back. Chris Korzen of Catholics United replied by saying that OSI also funds Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Catholic Legal Immigration Services (CLIS), thus making them morally equal.
We found Korzen’s argument fallacious and explained why. Unlike the three Catholic organizations cited by Korzen, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance are apologists for abortion rights. “Their passion for abortion rights is so strong that they refuse to endorse the legal ban on partial-birth abortion,” Donohue said.
Donohue continued as follows: “So scandalous is their work that they were singled out by Archbishop Charles Chaput for doing a ‘disservice’ to the Church. He said they have ‘confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress prolifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue….’ Chaput would never say that about the three legitimately Catholic social service groups.”
Catholic Charities, CRS and CLIS have been around for decades. All receive tens of millions of dollars from government, foundations and individuals, and it is a sure bet none has a clue who OSI is. The two discredited Catholic groups were founded after their pro-abortion hero, John Kerry, lost the election in 2004. More important, two years ago Catholics in Alliance received nearly 10 percent of its money from OSI. And it is a sure bet that its officials know exactly who is behind OSI.
The bottom line is this: When it comes to social welfare causes, Soros gives money indiscriminately. But when it comes to abortion, he prefers to give to pro-abortion and anti-Catholic groups like Catholics for Choice. Now he likes to give to Catholic abortion apologists as well. “Thus,” said Donohue, “Korzen’s moral equivalency argument fails miserably.”
If further proof were needed about these organizations, consider that the left-wing National Catholic Reporter favorably quoted Pew researcher John Green lumping Catholics in Alliance (and Pax Christi) with the notoriously anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice (previously Catholics for a Free Choice). No self-respecting Catholic organization would ever allow such a comparison to be made. It made sense, then, for Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph to brand Catholics in Alliance as a group that “has its priorities backward.”
Regarding Catholics for Choice, its president Jon O’Brien, told the Washington Post that “In Catholic theology there is room for the acceptance of policies that favor access to the full range of reproductive health options, including contraception and abortion.” This, of course, is a lie.
Adding to the deceit was Kathleen Munley, a professor at Marywood University in Pennsylvania. A member of Catholics for Obama, she defended Obama’s pro-abortion record, noting that there was “an undercurrent of racial bias” to some of Obama’s critics. To make her point, her group took out full-page ads in newspapers reminding Catholics of the wisdom of the Church’s teaching on racial tolerance. Nothing was said regarding the Church’s teaching on abortion.
