Payson Roundup

Acorn loses Catholic support

Editor:

The best news to come out of the recent election is that since ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has been exposed by the media, the Catholic Church’s upcoming Thanksgiving appeal to “fight poverty” (CCHD-Catholic Campaign for Human Development) has withdrawn its $1.13 million 2008 grant from ACORN. ($7.3 million granted to ACORN over the last 10 years!)

ACORN’s radical class warfare, community organizing tactics of intimidation and its left-wing affiliations (many of them pro-abortion) have been known for decades. However, it took the million-dollar embezzlement by Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke and chief ACORN organizer, to get the attention of the CCHD. Money talks.

Now it remains to be seen whether the CCHD, a project of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will follow through and also withdraw its annual donations (33 percent of what it collects from generous Catholics) from the other radical Alinskyite groups it funds — the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), Gamaliel, Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO) and Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART).

Until that happens, the surest way to fight poverty and actually help people is to keep the money at home and put it in the local St. Vincent de Paul basket, not the left-leaning CCHD sieve.

Carol Suhr