I'm a bit behind on this, but I really wanted to report on this entire "Faithful Citizenship" fiasco.There are all kinds of Democrat activists running this show; Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan from Catholic Charities are two names that come up in the list of the usual suspects. I don't know how involved the Bishop is in this travesty. You can call his office at 216-696-6525, ext 2030, and voice your concerns.
I just called to find out if there are any more meetings. I heard a rumor that there is one more meeting tonight at St. Clarence Church in North Olmsted at 7pm. Supposedly the Bishop's secretary is going to call me back if there is a meeting--we'll see if she does.
Here's the email from Cleveland Right to Life which I received two days ago:
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Tuesday -
September 25th 2012
Further to
our press release yesterday about a series of "Faithful
Citizenship" forums orchestrated by the Cleveland Diocese and
intended to help Catholics understand the issues in the upcoming
election, we have more evidence that they are being led by
people who have strong ties to the Democrat Party. This is a problem!
Now, having ties to the Democrat Party in and of itself is not the
problem (this is America). Rather the problem is the bias of the forums due to
the political leanings of the forum leaders. Here we have the leaders of the
Cleveland Diocesan Social Action Office, employed and paid by the Diocese and
under the direction of the Bishop's Office, hosting a "Faithful
Citizenship" forum series while at the same time being openly and strongly
aligned with the Democrat Party. The outcome of this forum leadership is that
the "Faithful Catholic Citizen" in attendance is leaving with at best
a muddled understanding of Catholic Teaching and how it applies to the issues
in play during this election. But even worse, many are coming away from these
forums with the impression that there is no moral hierarchy (the absolute
antitheses of Catholic Teaching) and that the Truths enumerated by our Founding
Fathers are no longer relevant.
One would expect the Diocese to be non-partisan; but these forums
have at least the appearance of a Diocesan endorsement of the Democrat position
on the issues.
Herewith some background on just two of the forum leaders namely
Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan. As we have previously noted, Leith has
publically identified herself on FaceBook as a supporter of Obama and is also a
past board member of a dissident Catholic organization called Future Church.
And O'Bryan was trained in Chicago by
none other than the Industrial Areas
Foundation, (IAF); an organization that has the distinction of being
the first community organizing group founded by Saul Alinsky.
But why should we be concerned about the IAF and Saul Alinsky? Well the IAF has
never deviated from its roots that include strong ties to the far left and the
Democrat Party and their training still embraces methods as laid out by Saul
Alinsky in his book, "Rules for Radicals". This is the same book that
is dedicated to Lucifer. Hmmm .... Strange place to go for the Truth as taught
by the Church!
Here are some of the groups and organizations that the leaders of
these forums are associated with and/or have referenced in their presentations:
Catholics For a Greater
Cleveland Congregation: On their website the GCC openly
declares that they are:"part of the Industrial Areas
Foundation, the nation's first and largest network of multi-faith coalitions,
and we draw on their seven decades of experience winning tough battles across
the nation." Remember that in 2008 ACORN which is also
"part of the Industrial Areas Foundation" was doing the work now tasked
to GCC in Cleveland, so one has to wonder if "elections" are the
"tough battles" the GCC is referencing.
FutureChurch:The
Cleveland Catholic Diocese has disavowed this
group as being "not consistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic
Church"
- FutureChurch is
the Cleveland chapter of Call to Action
- Call to Action's members were
officially excommunicated by Bishop Bruskewitz of Nebraska, a decision
affirmed by the Vatican in November of 2006 with this statement:
"The judgment of the Holy See is that the activities of Call to
Action in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic
faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a
doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint. Thus to be a member of this
association or to
support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith"
(emphasis added).
- Call to Action supports
"Catholics for a Free Choice" which the US Bishops have said is
an arm of the abortion industry
- Supports Gay Marriage
- Call to Action is closely
aligned with NETWORK
NETWORK: This Lobby group played a significant role in the passage of ObamaCare and has been
identified by the Catholic Church as NOT representing the Catholic Church
teachings. Consider these facts:
- Sr. Simone Campbell,
Executive Director is
a regular speaker for the Cleveland Social Action Office.
- Network wrote the now famous
"nuns letter" that was instrumental to the passage of the
Affordable Care Act.
- Network currently has a "Nuns on the
Bus" national tour to oppose the Paul Ryan Budget.
Public Relations for
"Nuns on the Bus" was supplied by "Faith in
Public Life" which is funded by billionaire Democrat supporter George
Soros.
- Campbell spoke at the 2012
Democrat National Convention and in 2008 gave the Benediction.
- NETWORK is a partner of
"Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good" of whom Archbishop Caput said in 2008: Groups
friendly to the Democrat Party such as "Catholics United and
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good have done a disservice to the
Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching,
undermined the progress prolifers have made, and provided an excuse for
some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within
their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn."
JustFaith: A discredited organization that
is infiltrating the local diocesan churches with programs that are NOT
supported by Catholic doctrine, such as liberation theology (rooted in
Marxism), support for homosexual lifestyle, extreme pacificism and environmentalism.
In addition the JustFaith program follows and is closely
aligned with that followed by The PICO National Network, the Industrial Areas
Foundation, The Gamaliel Foundation & Direct Action and Research Training
(DART). These organizations are all members of members of the Alinskian
(Industrial Areas Foundation) Network that we referenced above. Yes, the same
organization whose founder dedicated his community organizing guidebook to
Lucifer!
Justfaith is also a partner with NETWORK who lobbied extensively
for the Affordable Care Act that has now resulted in 1st Amendment
violations against Religious Freedom with the Catholic Church as its first
target.
And there is a lot more about JustFaith that should be of major
concern to serious Catholics but we will leave that for a later eblast.
The writing is pretty clearly up on the wall. The official
Catholic Church has plainly stated they outright reject or have serious issue
with the philosophies and goals of these groups and organizations. The Social
Action Office of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese needs to clean house if they
expect to be taken seriously by Catholics. The Cleveland Bishop should
terminate the employment of anyone connected to these groups and revamp the
current forums to reflect true Catholic beliefs that are rooted in Natural Law
principals, Biblical moral absolutes and the principal of subsidiarity. There
is no place in such forums for Moral Relativism, Humanism, Objectivism,
Secularism and New Age Spiritualism. The current series has serious flaws because
many of the presenters are twisting Catholic teachings to neatly fit the hymnal
of the Democrat National Platform.
Correcting the on-going bias in the Social
Action Office and Faithful Citizenship forums will not turn every Catholic vote
but it will move the swing vote sufficiently to protect human life.
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This reminds me of the
CCHD debacle, but that was/is on the fund-raising side. This is obviously on the get-out-the-vote side of things and the target is Ohio Catholics.
I'm planning to go to any events I can to see them up close and report on them. I'll keep everyone posted on what I discover here. I usually try to be low key about this kind of thing, but I'm done. Obama and the left have to be defeated this November. I'll gladly stand up on Judgment Day and say "Yeah, I helped kicked these people out."