GARRA does not appear on the 2025 CCHD Approved Grants. The organization, formerly known as Cidadão Global or Global Citizen, Inc., was first examined in Lepanto’s November 2022 report, which documented the group’s public promotion of abortion, contraception, and LGBT ideology, as well as its membership in the pro-abortion United States Human Rights Network, in which Cidadão Global remains listed as a member. At that time, Lepanto concluded that GARRA’s activities, leadership, and affiliations rendered it incompatible with Catholic moral teaching and unfit for Catholic funding.
Despite the publication of Lepanto’s November 2022 report, GARRA received one additional national CCHD grant during the 2022–2023 grant cycle, as reflected in the USCCB’s published CCHD grantees list for that cycle, which documents national CCHD grants for 2022–2023. This brought GARRA’s documented national CCHD funding total to $200,000, based on publicly available grant records spanning 2017 through 2023. GARRA does not appear on the CCHD Awarded Grants lists for 2023–2024 or on the 2025 approved grants list.
Leadership and Ideological Direction
GARRA’s leadership continues to demonstrate ideological positions directly opposed to Catholic moral and theological teaching. The organization’s 2022 Form 990 lists Helena Pires as treasurer and Stephanie Mulcock as GARRA’s executive director.
Mulcock is also listed on the Hispanic Federation website as Director of Immigration Legal Services. The Hispanic Federation has been covered in prior Lepanto reporting for its pro-abortion and pro-LGBT positions.
Pires’ public social media activity establishes a persistent and unmistakable pattern of advocacy for abortion and LGBT ideology.
During the period surrounding GARRA’s receipt of CCHD funds, Pires publicly celebrated abortion activism, including participation in abortion rights marches and the promotion of abortion advocacy content. Her posts repeatedly frame abortion as a moral good and a political cause requiring public defense. She has also publicly attributed abortion policy outcomes to political actors, further reinforcing her alignment with abortion activism.
In addition, Pires has consistently promoted LGBT ideology, including attendance at Pride events and the amplification of pro-LGBT political messaging. These posts span multiple years and cannot reasonably be dismissed as isolated or incidental expressions.
Such public advocacy by a senior officer of a CCHD-funded organization directly violates CCHD guidelines, which prohibit support for groups or individuals who promote positions contrary to Catholic moral teaching.
This public record establishes that a senior officer of GARRA openly and repeatedly endorses positions that directly contradict Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and human sexuality.
Organizational Activities
GARRA’s organizational conduct reflects the same ideological commitments exhibited by its leadership. During the 2022–2023 grant cycle, the organization’s official social media accounts continued to promote LGBT activism, including content affirming transgender ideology and Pride events. For example, GARRA’s official posts included asylum guidance that explicitly identifies “people trans” as a protected social group, alongside broader “LGBTQIAP+” advocacy. These communications were issued through GARRA’s official channels and presented as expressions of the organization’s mission and values.
In 2023, GARRA hosted and promoted a fundraising event that featured a drag performer. Promotional materials for the event were disseminated through GARRA’s official social media platforms, including Instagram, and the event was also promoted on Facebook through a post shared by GARRA’s treasurer, Helena Pires, mentioned above.
The event was publicly celebrated and promoted by GARRA leadership. The decision to platform drag performance as part of a fundraising initiative reflects an affirmative embrace of sexualized and gender ideological expression that is fundamentally incompatible with Catholic moral teaching. This was not an external partnership imposed upon the organization, but an event actively organized, advertised, and endorsed by GARRA leadership.
Conclusion
The evidence gathered since Lepanto’s original report confirms that GARRA’s ideological orientation has not changed. Its leadership continues to publicly endorse abortion and LGBT activism. Its organizational activities continue to reflect those same commitments. While GARRA no longer appears to receive national CCHD funding and has reduced its public activity, the foundational issues that disqualified the organization in 2022 remain fully in place.
GARRA should never have received Catholic Campaign for Human Development funding and should never receive Catholic funds in the future.
Cidadão Global / Global Citizen, Inc., AKA GARRA (Original 2022 Report)
NOTE: To download a PDF version of this report, please click here.
Cidadão Global / Global Citizen, Inc
Cidadao Global, which is now called GARRA, has received $150,000 from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development since 2017, including its most recent grant of $40,000 for the 2020-2021 grants cycle.
At issue is the fact that Cidadao Global (now called GARRA) actively promotes homosexual and transgender ideologies as well as abortion and contraception narratives on social media. It is also a dues-paying member of the pro-abortion US Human Rights Network (USHRN).
In February of 2020, Cidadao Global announced that it was changing its name to GARRA.
On social media, under its new name, GARRA has actively promoted homosexual and transgender ideologies.
On March 31, 2021, GARRA posted a message on instagram promoting transgenderism, saying, “Today is #transvisibilityday- a date that reminds us of the fight for equity and respect of a group still largely kept in the margins of society … Take the time today to consider the transphobia …”
On June 28, 2022, GARRA celebrated “Pride Day” while altering its logo into rainbow colors.
On December 14, 2021, GARRA identified what it called 5 types of sexual abuse. Included in the list is “forced pregnancy” (which means not permitting access to abortion), and preventing contraceptive methods.
GARRA is a Dues-Paying member of the Pro-Abortion USHRN
The CCHD absolutely forbids organizations from membership in organizations acting against Catholic teaching. In an FAQ on the USCCB website, the CCHD directly answers the question about whether grantees may be members of coalitions that oppose Catholic teachings. In answer, the CCHD firmly stated, “CCHD will not fund groups that are knowingly members of coalitions that have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
On the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) Members page, USHRN identifies Cidadao Global as a member.
Any organization wishing to join USHRN has to pay dues and has to be committed to USHRN’s “Core Principles.” Given GARRA’s expenses in 2020, its annual dues to USHRN would be $200.
USHRN’s Core Principles, as stated on their “About Us” page, includes “sexual rights.”
And there can be no doubt that for USHRN, “sexual rights” include abortion. On May 19, 2019, USHRN published a statement declaring that “USHRN opposes restricting abortion, affirms nation’s obligation to protect the human right to safe and legal abortion.” The opening paragraph of the statement reads:
“The US Human Rights Network affirms that access to safe and legal abortion is a human right. Ensuring safe and legal abortion is part of the nation’s obligations to eliminate discrimination against women and to protect women’s right to health. Laws criminalizing abortion are discriminatory and a barrier to women’s access to health care.
…
The US Human Rights Network firmly opposes all state laws that restrict women’s right to abortion as protected in Roe v. Wade. The Network likewise opposes any further efforts to reduce protections set forth in Roe v. Wade, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s hearings on a nationwide, 20-week abortion ban. We affirm the nation’s obligation to protect the human right to safe and legal abortion.“
In December of 2018, USHRN published a “Status Report on Human Rights in the United States.” The section on “Reproductive Human Rights,” beginning on page 58, makes it abundantly clear that access to abortion is considered “essential” by the USHRN. Furthermore, this section advocates the full range of reproductive “freedom” ie, comprehensive sex-ed, abortion access, and contraception.
Conclusion
Cidadão Global / Global Citizen, Inc (AKA GARRA) is clearly an organization that promotes abortion and homosexual and transgender ideologies. Furthermore, it is a dues-paying member of the pro-abortion USHRN, in direct violation of CCHD grant guidelines. If the CCHD actually adhered to its own guidelines, GARRA would never have even been considered for funding.
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