Employees Support Planned Parenthood, Homosexuality
In July of this year, the Lepanto Institute published an article about the corporate sponsors of the Association of United States Catholic Priest’s (AUSCP) annual assembly. One of the corporate sponsors, who took out a full page ad in the AUSCP’s assembly program book for a listed $6,000, is the popular charity ‘Unbound.’ Unbound, formerly called the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, is a nonprofit, lay-run sponsorship organization designed to provide food, education, clothing and access to medical care to children and elderly.
The Lepanto Institute reached out to Unbound on 2 July, asking if the organization was aware of the AUSCP’s promotion of women’s ordination, homosexuality, priestless parishes, and heresy, but never received a response. Since the publication of our article on Unbound’s contribution to the AUSCP, many faithful Catholics have emailed, called, and written to Unbound to express their concern, and Unbound finally responded to them with this boilerplate statement:
“Thank you for your recent letter. We appreciate your feedback. Deeply rooted in Catholic social teaching, Unbound’s mission is to serve the poor and marginalized of the world. In order to do that, we engage with various individuals and groups from throughout the Catholic community. This includes exhibiting at conferences. Sometimes, along the way, these groups may not always agree with each other.
If you have questions about the AUSCP’s policies, it may be most effective to speak with them directly, as we do not get involved in doctrinal disagreements between Catholics. Our focus is on creating pathways for people who want to put their faith into action in serving families and elders around the world who are overcoming poverty. Unbound continues to be guided by Catholic social teaching and our shared values, keeping our sponsored friends and their families our priority in all that we do. If you have concerns about that, I am happy to pass them along.” (emphasis added)
Taken at face value, this statement gives the impression that the AUSCP is simply one among many organizations with whom Unbound works, and that its ideological positions are simply a representation among the spectrum of beliefs of this multitude of groups. However, upon further investigation, it has become clear that Unbound’s connection with AUSCP is not as incidental as it would like for us to believe.
For instance, the Church Relations Director at Unbound is Paco Wertin. On Facebook, Wertin “likes” the Association of United States Catholic Priests, as well as AUSCP ally, FutureChurch, The Nuns on the Bus, National Catholic Reporter and Pro-LGBT activist, Fr. James Martin.
In addition to this, Wertin has attended the AUSCP’s annual conference for the last 2 years. Here is a picture from the AUSCP’s page, showing him at the 2018 conference in Albuquerque (left) and a picture of him attending the AUSCP’s annual assembly in 2019 (right).
In the AUSCP’s most recent newsletter, the AUSCP identifies Unbound as “a major sponsor of the AUSCP Assemblies” and that “Several AUSCP members are weekend preachers for Unbound.” In this blurb, the AUSCP directs its members to contact Paco Wertin if they are interested in volunteering for Unbound:
Clearly, Unbound’s connection with the AUSCP is not incidental. And given that Paco Wertin serves as the “Church Relations” director, it might explain why so many of the priests listed as “Preachers” on the Unbound “Presenters” page are associated with the AUSCP. The following “preachers” are in some way affiliated or connected to the AUSCP:
Rev. Bob Bonnot – Fr. Bonnot’s biographical profile on Unbound’s Presenters page used to say that “he remains involved in the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP).” Since our report this summer about Unbound’s financial support for the AUSCP, this line has since disappeared from Fr. Bonnot’s profile. And it should be noted that Fr. Bonnot isn’t just “active” with the AUSCP, he is the executive director of the AUSCP and has been the chairman of the Leadership Team since 2014 (3 years after the AUSCP’s founding). And in 2018, Fr. Bonnot donated between $25,000 – $30,000 to the AUSCP.
Rev. John Kirwin – Fr. Kirwin was a donor to the AUSCP in 2018, and signed a letter in 2013 supporting Fr. Tony Flannery, the founder of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in Ireland. The letter states:
We want to join the ACP in support of Father Tony Flannery in the hope that his many years of dedicated faithful priestly ministry might be respected in the discussion with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
We are concerned about similar penalties imposed upon American priests such as Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Fr. Bill Brennan, S.J. Not all of our members may agree with the statements of these priests, but they deserve to be treated more compassionately by Vatican officials. The fact that their penalties are more severe than those imposed upon bishops and priests involved in the recent paedophilia scandals certainly raises questions of fairness and justice.
Fr. Flannery was suspended by the Vatican in 2012 for actively and publicly promoting women’s ordination to the priesthood, contraception and homosexuality.
Rev. John Anglin – Fr. Anglin was a donor to the AUSCP in 2018, and also signed the letter of support for Fr. Flannery.
Rev. Robert Beirne – Fr. Beirne was the 2018 chair of the AUSCP’s Ad Hoc Working Group for the Youth Synod. In April of 2018, he co-signed an AUSCP letter addressed to Paul Jarzembowski, the USCCB’s Assistant Director for the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. The purpose of the letter was to present to the USCCB a report prepared by the AUSCP “as a contribution to the 2018 Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.” Much of the report focused on the acceptance of homosexuality within the Church, such as the report’s statement number 10, under the topic, “Identify 2 positive things Young Persons can offer church and/or society.” The AUSCP report responded, “Their experienced gift of God’s love in the full spectrum of sexual expressions.”
Rev. Joseph Gosslin – Fr. Gosslin is a 2018 donor to the AUSCP.
Rev. Bob Hasenkamp – Fr. Hasenkamp is a 2018 donor to the AUSCP.
Rev. Tom Landgraff – Fr. Landgraff, who died in May 2019, was the chair of the AUSCP’s Social Justice Committee, and was a donor to the AUSCP in 2018.
Rev. Robert McAleer – Fr. McAleer was identified in a 2018 AUSCP newsletter as an AUSCP member. In a 2017 newsletter from the Catholic publication of the Diocese of Davenport, Fr. McAleer was identified as attending the AUSCP annual assembly, and having been actively involved with the AUSCP since its founding in 2011. He is also a donor to the AUSCP in 2018.
It’s bad enough that Unbound took out a $6,000 ad in the AUSCP’s assembly program book, but to brush it off as though this was an incidental matter without any further association is deceitful. Clearly, the ties with AUSCP are much tighter than Unbound is comfortable admitting. Why else would Unbound remove the line about its presenter “Rev. Bob Bonnot” being involved with the AUSCP after our article exposed Unbound’s ad in the AUSCP’s program book?
But another question regarding Unbound’s use of these “preachers” has to do with financial compensation for their presentations. A ministry run by a Fr. John Graden, one of Unbound’s “presenters,” contains a page for scheduling Unbound parish missions. These missions cost the parish, $1,400 for one priest and $2,300 for two priests. What is unclear is to whom the money is paid and subsequently, how the money is used. Is this another way for providing funds to priests connected to the AUSCP? Funds that will eventually find their way into AUSCP coffers?
Being connected with the AUSCP is not the only issue we discovered concerning Unbound. In addition to having no less than eight priests associated with the AUSCP, being a “major sponsor of the AUSCP Assemblies,” and having a Church Relations Director who is very connected with the AUSCP, Unbound has several personnel members, including leadership, who support homosexuality and abortion.
Pritha Hariharan – Unbound’s director for International Programs. On Facebook, Hariharan placed an LGBT rainbow overlay on her profile image. That image with the overlay was “liked” by fellow employees of Unbound, Lead Outreach Coordinator Clair Paul, Sponsorship Services Director Ramiro Zelada, and Project Manager Michelle Dawson.
Pritha Hariharan also posted a pro-abortion overlay onto her profile that said, “Pro-Women, Pro-Choice.” Again, giving a thumbs-up to the overlay are Ramiro Zelada and Michelle Dawson. Clair Paul gave it a “heart” react, indicating that she very much liked the overlay message.
Clare Paul – Lead Outreach Coordinator for Unbound. We’ve already seen that Clare Paul “liked” a pro-homosexual post and “loved” a pro-abortion post by a fellow employee at Unbound. In addition to this, Clare “likes” the virulently pro-abortion “Global Women’s Fund,” which states on its website about abortion, “restrictions to abortion rights restrict women’s fundamental self-determination and control over their bodies, lives, destinies.”
Barclay Martin – New Channels Coordinator for Unbound. He posted a “marriage equality” equal sign on his Facebook page, which was “liked” by Unbound’s International Programs Specialist, Sara Asmussen.
Liana Hudson – Sponsor Service Specialist for Unbound. In June of this year, Liana posted a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, indicating that she had donated.
Conclusion
Unbound has had a reputation for doing very good works for people living in poverty all over the world for a very long time. It is deeply unfortunate that it has decided to be a financial supporter and close collaborator with the heretical Association of United States Catholic Priests. But given the activities of many of its leadership and employees, it is not all that surprising that the organization is so closely aligned with the AUSCP.
Due to the serious concerns we have regarding Unbound’s ties to the AUSCP and its clearly pro-abortion and pro-homosexual disposition of its leadership and employees, the Lepanto Institute has given Unbound the “NOT Safe” designation on our charities report list.
If you have been a donor to Unbound, we encourage you to write to the organization and explain to them that as long as Unbound employs pro-abortion and pro-homosexual individuals and maintains a financial and working relationship with the heretical AUSCP, you can not support their efforts.
Unbound
1 Elmwood Ave.
Kansas City, KS 66103
800.875.6564 | 913.384.6500
mail@unbound.org
To whom it may concern…
As long as Unbound continues to employ pro- abortion and pro-homosexuals individuals and maintains a financial and working relationships with the heretical AUSCP, I will not support their efforts.
I donated to support these children for years. When Unbound took over the reins I sensed it was taking on very progressive views. So I stopped supporting them. My suspicions are confirmed. They hijacked a very honorable organization to support their evil agenda.
We have supported Unbound since it began. We believed it to be a very orthodox organization and , with all the scandal in the Church today, knew it was something worthwhile and faithful. If what we read from Lepanto is true, even a little bit true, we will soon end our association with Unbound. I am grieved for those who are so in need of help and discouraged by Satan’s success. Please assure me that this is all false information…..
We have sponsored 2 children in Madagascar for 9 years so far. We correspond with them regularly. I am at a loss as to what to do. We cannot abandon them while they still need our financial support to further their education. We will contact Unbound with our concerns. We welcome any other advice.
Several people have faced the same concern, and when they finally decided to stop funding Unbound, they were told by Unbound reps that someone else was assigned to fill in for the loss of funding provided by them. So, clearly, shifting things around for them so that the sponsored child continues to receive support isn’t an issue.
A priest came to our parish and in his talk (AT MASS) said “I support a boy who is Hindu. I don’t care what their religion is.” After Mass I approached him & said “ Father, the boy you support did not receive the Body & Blood of Our Lord this morning. How can you care for his material needs and not for his soul?” He shuffled me off to his Aid who said they help everyone. I went to my priest & he said he was surprised also by what the presenting priest said. Said he went “off script”!! I’ve been praying for that priest ever since. Shameful & disheartening. These priest presenters are also very aggressive. At another time, the priest put pictures of the children all around the altar ( directly in our face during Mass) & was very aggressive in commissioning people to donate as we were leaving Mass. We currently support a child. We will have to re-evlaluate.
We have been sponsoring a child in India for the past few years. I will be writing to the organization and suspending the support for the next year. As a faithful Catholic I want to support groups the align with the teachings of the church.
This is all true and more. We began with CFCA years ago and were suspicious of their abandonment of the word Christian from their name. It is correct that your donation only goes to a general pot for that area. If you leave that child is still in the program. Your “sponsored child” is corralled in to writing to you regularly, and that emotional hook is the group’s leverage. But know that these sponsored children’s mothers are victims of sexual intimidation by the regional manager if they want to stay in the program. In essence they are NGO slaves. Our story with CFCA had a very happy ending as our “child” is now happily employed in the US as an IT engineer. But all that had nothing to do with Unbound. We now give money directly to an Indian orphanage which is directly run by the Pius Union of St. Joseph.
If you know of sources who can confirm that management in Unbound is using sexual intimidation to force children to write letters, we would like to speak with them.
I am Canadian and sponsor two children through Chalice which is a Roman Catholic organization. Several years ago, I was told that the American branch (I don’t recall the original name of the name the joint Canadian/American organization) wanted to administer their own foster program and my child in India was transferred to the American “wing” and another child from the Philippines was substituted. Am wondering now if the American branch became “Unbound” – if anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful.
If this is the organization to which you refer, it seems that you are thinking of Chalice, US. They appear to be separate from Unbound: //chaliceus.org/about-1
It should be noted that on Chalice’s FAQ page, in response to the question, “Do you evangelize,” Chalice says:
“No, Chalice regards each person of equal worth regardless of race, age, disability, gender, ethnicity, creed, or color. Our aim is to provide the communities with nutrition, health, education and other basic necessities. In the majority of our sponsor sites in India and Bangladesh we have children from Muslim and Hindu faith.”
//chaliceus.org/sponsor-a-child/#faq
Let’s say you and I “disagree on Catholic doctrine.” That has to mean one of us is NOT Catholic! Also, how do we know those donations even get to the poor children pictured, and those whose biographies are posted to individual donors? It seems to me, always suspicious, that a deeper investigation (Yeah, I know! Who’s got the resources?) into several of those individual children could reveal if, a – they actually exist as written about and, b – if they are getting the money. What if the same “child” – real or not, is posted to more than one donor? What if some, many or all, of their stories and requests go to more than one donor? Or many donors? Given the moral corruption of so many “social gospel” groups I would be surprised if the conditions and help touted by them to gain our support are even real. Sad to say that millions of poor children are perhaps used only as fund raisers and either do not exist, are not really that bad off, and/or are not being helped at all but real or not are used as pawns in a money grab for the devil. Horrible commentary I agree. What to do? What did Mother Teresa insist on?
We all have to live and follow the ‘truth’ unlike we ever have before! Unfortunately, this means withdrawing our contributions and providing them to organizations that align with our faith and values. We cannot support the organization any longer after many years.
After reading this report I am withdrawing my support for Unbound . I can’t justify giving support to a charitable group that promotes heresy. It is very sad that I can’t in good conscience give money for the poor without doing an in-depth analysis of a Catholic agency.
This is very disturbing news. My wife and I supported two girls in India who have both graduated. We now are helping a boy in Nigeria. We’ve even done fund raising for them by manning a table and signing up sponsors at four area Catholic churches. I assume the train went off the tracks when the organization become Unbound…how appropriate. What do we do now, abandon the young man in Nigeria? It’s not his fault. We’ve also been notified that the sponsorship cost will be increasing $10 in January. One way or another I’m pretty sure that extra $120 will find its way to Unbound’s “friends.”
Unbound has made it clear to those canceling their sponsorships that resources will be shifted in order to make up for the loss.
This is the email that I sent to Unbound. I followed up with a phone call and told them I was cancelling due o their connection to the heretical priest organization and that I had sent an email explaining my concern.
Recently I have read a report which verifies your ties to the heretical organization, AUSCP. There is also evidence that the Unbound organization employs individuals who support homosexuality and abortion. Therefore I want my sponsorship cancelled.
We have supported Unbound (formerly CFCA) for 24 years. We cancelled our current three sponsorships. We too wondered about the name change when it happened and their dropping “Christian” from the organization. We will find other charities that more CLEARLY align with our values. Given the information exposed here, it is disturbing to think how our dollars are being used and what type of agendas are being driven down to the “sponsored child” level.