In just the last two weeks, we have been examining the grants and problems over at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Our first major report was on the conflict of interest being practiced by the current director of the CCHD. If you missed it, you can view that report here. Last week, our investigative team discovered that a CCHD grantee in New York was actively involved in homosexuality activism and the promotion of Marxist communism. And in case you missed that one, you can view that report here.
Today, the Lepanto Institute published a new profile on a CCHD grantee in Massachusetts called the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center, also known as United Neighbors of Fitchburg. As it turns out, the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center was named on a Planned Parenthood Title X grant application as one of its “community partners.” According to the grant application, a “community partner” with Planned Parenthood is “a referral partner for PPLM’s Title X health centers, and received a PPLM health services brochure, postcards, and magnets to distribute to community members.” In other words, according to the application, Cleghorn has agreed to refer individuals to Planned Parenthood. The question is, has such referral actually taken place? It appears that it has.
The Youth Development Supervisor for Cleghorn is a woman named Delmarie Baez. In January of 2014, Baez created a presentation on teen pregnancy which encourages teens to seek the advice of Planned Parenthood, especially “if the teen is scared to talk to their parent” because “Planned Parenthood is confidential.” There is a lot more to this extensive profile, so we encourage you to review the documented facts here.
How is it even possible that this organization received a grant in 2014, considering the fact that the Reform CCHD Now coalition mailed a printed profile on this group to the local CCHD director, to the national CCHD director, and to all of the bishops in the country back in 2012? In that profile, the Reform CCHD Now coalition revealed the facts about the Planned Parenthood Title X grant application that names Cleghorn as a community partner. One would think that the CCHD would have examined this fact, and at the very least, quietly defunded the organization and barred them from future grants. But now that Cleghorn’s youth development supervisor has actually created a presentation that confirms what the grant application says Cleghorn would be doing as a community partner, we have to wonder if the CCHD is just completely dense, or actually doesn’t mind that Cleghorn is working with Planned Parenthood.
We will be continuing to publish reports on CCHD grantees as long as the CCHD refuses to address the very serious violations of their own guidelines and Catholic moral teaching. In the mean time, we encourage our readers to pray the Rosary daily for the leadership at the CCHD and for the bishops and priests involved. Our battle is not against those involved in the problems of the CCHD … their souls and those following them are the treasures for which we are fighting. Our enemy is the devil who is seeking to destroy the Church by misleading those individuals who either don’t or won’t allow themselves to understand the harm they are doing to the faithful. So, please pray for them. If we don’t, who will?
Thank you for this information. Our diocese had the collection for CCHD a couple of weeks ago, and I made a point of telling my pastor why we don’t support it. My info was vague; I appreciate more details.
God bless you!
This is egregious. More plainly, it is evil. This kind of cooperation and complicity of such evil by some of our own clergy and by fellow lay Catholics is sickening. And it is not just the singular act of cooperating that is so diabolical, rather, it is the acquiescence to relativism that undermines and permeates all that is spoken and acted upon by these same clergy and lay people. What a travesty to the heart of our Blessed Jesus! CCHD, you do NOT speak for me and my family!
This story is false.
Background–I am a 53 year-old, lifelong Catholic, fully adhering to ALL of the church’s teachings…and not only because She teaches them, but also because I understand them.
…….I am also employed by the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center.
We categorically DO NOT partner with Planned Parenthood–we do NOTHING which contradicts Church teaching.
Merely listing the CNC as a partner does not MAKE us a partner–anyone familiar with the non-profit world knows that some organizations will list anyone they can think of as a partner, whether it is true or not–for grant purposes, showing numerous “partners” enhances ones ability to get funding…………….and no one checks that the partnerships are actually real.
As the grant-writer for the CNC, I am privy to ALL of the activities of the organization–and as a staunch Catholic, I would NEVER be part of something which goes against Church teaching…particularly something so egregious as the wanton slaughter of babies!
I applaud the work of the Lepanto Institute–but I encourage them to be more diligent in their efforts to learn the truth…….since Jesus came to FULFILL not ABOLISH the Law, the injunction against bearing false witness is still in force.
Mark,
Thank you for your comment and clarification. Can you address the fact that Cleghorn’s Youth Development Supervisor created a presentation on teen pregnancy which promotes Planned Parenthood, and that Cleghorn co-sponsored the condom-promoting organization TeenAIDS’ events?
Michael Hichborn