Report: Political Donations by “Professional” Catholics Heavily Favor Democrats

In 2016, the Lepanto Institute conducted a review of political contributions from employees of Catholic Relief Services, finding that 98% of those employees contributed to pro-abortion candidates and causes.

A new analysis of political campaign contributions, conducted by the Lepanto Institute and Complicit Clergy, updated and expanded this initial research to include individuals working for various other Catholic charitable institutions, namely Catholic Charities, Covenant House, St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Relief Services, the Knights of Columbus, Cross Catholic Outreach and Jesuit Refugee Service.

We examined 47,000 public records for employees of those seven organizations over three reporting periods (2019-2020, 2021-2022, and 2023-2024) and included contributions received between 23 October 2018 – 27 February 2024.  What we found was that an overwhelming majority of this data set supported pro-abortion, pro-LGBT (Democrat) candidates and/or causes.  As can be seen in the chart below, 83% of the political contributions went to Democrat-affiliated Political Action Committees (PAC) like ActBlue, AB PAC, DNC Services, Biden for President, Biden Action Fund, Biden Victory Fund, and a long list of individual candidates.  Only 16% of the contributions went to Republican PACs or candidates, such as WinRed, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc, NRCC, and similar organizations.

Examining the political contributions of the employees belonging to these charitable organizations reveals that all but the Knights of Columbus (KoC) are completely dominated by hard-Left employees.  While the political contributions coming from those working for the KoC (90%) went to Republican candidates or causes, such employees are clearly deep minorities for all the other organizations we examined.  Conversely, 99% of political contributions coming from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) went to Democrat candidates or causes.  And while only 76% of Catholic Charities’ employees contribute to Democrat candidates and causes, its employees constitute the largest donor base to political candidates of all Catholic charitable organizations: $180,090 for Republican candidates and causes and $592,872 for Democrat candidates and causes.

The dataset of employee contributions to political candidates and causes represents a cross-section of the charity industry under the auspices of the Catholic Church.  According to an April 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, 52% of registered voting Catholics identify as Republican while 44% identify as Democrat.  Given this average, it would make sense for a survey of employees working for Catholic charitable organizations to closely resemble this nearly 50% split.  But what we find in this set of data is that the vast majority of employees working for Catholic charitable organizations are overwhelmingly Democrat.  A statistical anomaly like this is so lopsided that it cannot be a mere coincidence and must be by design.  Dr. Christopher Manion relayed to me once that the former CEO of Catholic Relief Services, Ken Hackett once told him that he would never knowingly employ a Republican.  Given that our data shows that 99% of CRS employees contribute to Democrat candidates and causes, it appears that he (and his successors) have been true to this.

It is also worth noting that in 2019, then Senator Kamala Harris – a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee – employed a litmus test for judicial candidates based upon whether they were members of the Knights of Columbus.  All members of the Knights of Columbus must be practicing Catholics who adhere to the moral and social teachings of the Catholic faith, and the Knights have long been known for their work in defense of preborn babies.  But Harris’ litmus test appears to be predicated on political lines, and the 90% contributions from KoC employees going to GOP candidates and causes appears to bear this out.

Employee political contributions for each charitable organization went as follows:

• Catholic Charities – 23% Republican 76% Democrat
• Covenant House – 3% Republican 97% Democrat
• Vincent De Paul – 11% Republican 88% Democrat
• Catholic Relief Services – 1% Republican 99% Democrat
• Knights of Columbus – 90% Republican 10% Democrat
• Cross Catholic Outreach – 4% Republican 96% Democrat
• Jesuit Refugee Service – 100% Democrat

When it comes to individual contributors, we broke down contributions by amount to see how many contributors there were over $5,000 over the course of our dataset time period.  We discovered thirty-five donors who had given over $5,000 from 2019-present, and of that thirty-five, only nine contributed to GOP candidates and causes.  All the rest went to the hard-Left, which is 75% of donors over $5,000.  The total amount given to hard-Left politicians and causes by these 26 individuals is $685,779, while only $100,225 went to GOP candidates and causes.  The split of funds to Democrat or GOP candidates works out to 12.75% GOP – 87.25% Democrat.  Even removing the contributions from one mega-donor who accounts for $390,000, the split still heavily favors the Democrats with 75% of the funds.

The single-largest contributor of all the data sets is Wayne Paglieri, who lists his employer (with the FEC filing) as both Covenant House New Jersey and Catholic Charities.  Paglieri – the senior development director of Covenant House New Jersey and member of the Covenant House NJ Finance Committee – has made $390,000 in reportable campaign contributions from 2019-2023.  What’s strange, however, is that Covenant House New Jersey itself does not identify Paglieri as an employee, nor is he listed on its tax form 990.  What one must wonder is how he is able to afford making political contributions of over half-a-million dollars over a 4-year span to pro-abortion candidates and causes by working for a Catholic charitable non-profit.  At $97,500 on average, his annual contributions themselves would cover the annual salary of a mid-level executive.   But even more alarming is that Paglieri (without identifying an employer) has even made a $5,000 contribution to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

But Paglieri is hardly alone in this.  Leslie Abbey, Covenant House’s Former Deputy Executive Director and CEO for Covenant House New York contributed $11,800 to Emily’s List, an organization whose mission is to “elect Democratic pro-choice women to office.”  Other contributions to Emily’s List are $230 from Claudie Sires – a Therapist for Catholic Charities in Nebraska (see below) – and $40 from Virginia Gajewski – Community Support Professional for Catholic Charities Disabilities Services.  The complete list of contributors over $5,000 can be found here, but below we’ve truncated the list to those contributing to Democrat candidates and causes.

1. Wayne Paglieri – Covenant House NJ – $390,000
2. Leslie Abbey – Covenant House NY – $54,991
3. Alice Graber – Catholic Community Services – $36,710
4. Coquese Williams – Catholic Charities SE Texas – $17,585
5. Claudie Sires – a Therapist for Catholic Charities in Nebraska – $17,378
6. Michael Fleming – Director at St. Vincent de Paul – $13,276
7. Bill O’Keefe – CRS – $12,615
8. Amy Steiner – Catholic Charities – $12,110
9. Paul Lombardi – Covenant House – $11,900
10. Henry Brown – Catholic Charities – $11,595
11. Geoffrey Heinrich – CRS – $9,185
12. Margaret Singer – Catholic Charities of SW OH – $8,655
13. Margie Shurgot – Catholic Charities in Berkley – $8,466
14. Arthur Solmssen – Catholic Charities of NH – $8,400
15. David Cleveland – Catholic Charities – $8,250
16. Mark Palmer – CRS – $7,090
17. Dave Coddington – CRS – $6,820
18. Gaelle Prussien – Catholic Charities – $6,491
19. Kristen Karle – SVdP – $6,025
20. Dale McCardle – Catholic Charities of Baltimore – $5,800
21. Jaber Hasso – Catholic Charities – $5,800
22. John Ducoff – Covenant House International – $5,700
23. Sumiko Kamiya – Catholic Charities – $5,431
24. Dennis Rausch – Cross Catholic Outreach – $5,396
25. Arturo Morales – Catholic Charities of Hartford – $5,110
26. Charlie Ortiz – Catholic Charities – $5,000

Dishonorable Mentions

The original dataset we started with has 148,476 entries and included Catholic school teachers, parish employees, priests, and various other employment under the auspices of the Catholic Church.  With such a large sampling of information, it was nearly impossible to conduct a proper analysis of the information, which is why we pared it down to the most prominent Catholic charitable organizations. That said, it is worth noting that we discovered in this initial set of information several individuals working for the Catholic Church – including at least two priests – while making financial contributions to Emily’s List, the radical pro-abortion organization NARAL Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice Women, and the Human Rights Campaign.

Emily’s List

• Marilyn Zeigler – a Teacher at St. Mark Catholic School in Wilmington – $50
• Maren Hofstad – a Liturgical Musician at St. Mary Catholic Church – $200
• Debrarose Barry – a “Pastoral Associate” at St. Mary of the Assumption parish – $60
• Laura Atwell – Chief Development Officer for Catholic Guardian Services – $70
• Lana Bostic – RN with Catholic Health Initiatives – $30

NARAL:

• Tawny Townsend – Catholic Community Services in Portland – $5
• Sarah Schoellkopf – St. Veronica Catholic School in San Francisco – $100
• Liz Peltekian – Catholic Charities Madison in Brooklyn – $250

Pro-Choice Women (ActBlue):

• Jaye Call – Catholic Charities in Madison – $10
• Denise Higgins – Catholic Charities in Crosswicks – $5
• Elisa Juarez – Catholic Charities Fort Worth in Mansfield – $25
• Sherry Grusendorf – Catholic Church in Lubbock – $9
• Fr. Martin Peter – Catholic Priest in Columbus, OH  – $3
• Warren Sheay – Catholic Community Services (Catholic Charities) Bellingham – $62

Human Rights Campaign:

• Eugene Herbert – Pastor emeritus Archdiocese of Los Angeles – $500