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Yes, it just may be possible that there are a few honest, helpful community organisers on this earth. One of them, Rey Lopez-Calderon, appears to be one of the good guys who went into organising to genuinely help the underprivileged. He’s worked with the United Farm Workers in California and in the Pilsen neighbourhood in Chicago.
He also worked for the Gamaliel Foundation, recipients of Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CHD) funding. And that’s where he got a slightly different insight about community organising. He wrote his story recently for Blogcritics. It’s called ‘Walking the Edge of Immorality’. What a picture he paints.
As regular readers of Churchmouse Campanologist know, Gamaliel’s head organiser is a chap named Greg Galluzzo, who is either an ex-Jesuit or went to a Jesuit seminary — reports differ. Barack Obama also worked for them in the early 1990s.
By way of apology, Rey says:
The idea of an international, faith-based organization that brings together people of all colors and creeds is certainly a noble cause. But the organization’s philosophy was flawed from day one. I worked for Gamaliel in the late 1990s up until 2001…
My former mentors, Greg Galluzzo and his wife Mary Gonzalez, took over the Gamaliel Foundation after breaking with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the organization founded by Saul Alinsky. Gamaliel’s leadership system was built on notes obtained from the IAF …
Working life was more Alinsky-oriented than faith-based. It certainly wasn’t Catholic. Rey says:
I have never seen such a strange and warped culture anywhere. Staff were pitted against each other by Galluzzo and Gonzalez.
Galluzzo, in Rey’s words:
wanted organizers to be tough bastards who could build power like the Conquistadors … (no virtù needed at all).
felt that organizers should fight fire with fire.
used to give a cultish advanced training seminar titled ‘Walking the Edge of Immorality’ where he repeatedly stated ‘the ends justifies the means’ and nonchalantly told us that to have an impact on society we had to be willing to ‘lie, cheat, and steal for the greater good’.
… We could be shady to get power but once we had enough power, knowing the Good would be enough for us to make the right decisions.
Rey explains:
Too bad Galluzzo … skipped the course on Aristotle where he would have learned that character is a function of habit — i.e. doing shady things makes you shady whether or not you grasp the Good. The final straw for me was when Galluzzo sent out a weekly report with a reflection that we organizers needed to promote a noble myth to our churches that our work was about justice, God, and peace even though we really knew it was about power.
He knows it’s the wrong way to go about things. Okay, he’s way, way to the left and works with IAF affiliates — you can read his blog here. I can’t see the point in encouraging victimhood in this day and age. Whatever happened to character and virtue? However, do note his conclusion:
I left Gamaliel disillusioned and disgusted by what seemed to me to be pure evil. How could a faith-based organization operate under such a skewed, cynical view of the world? Where was God in that scheme? I should have exposed them then. I had a duty to do so. We can’t content ourselves with feelings of moral superiority while people with corrupt principles are out there building power. We ignore these bad apples to our own peril. We have to be willing to shake the tree, letting the rotten ones fall where they may.
Rey would probably disagree with my advocating a boycott of CHD. Some of that money just might be going to organisations he works for and with. Nevertheless, we know already that some of the funding goes to the Gamaliel Foundation.
Please think carefully before giving to the CHD — in fact, please boycott the collection. It’s not Catholic and it doesn’t support Catholic ideals, no matter what the USCCB or their spokespeople say.
Above is a set of progressive connections with American churches. Blue boxes denote recipients of secular funding. Green boxes signify active donors. Pink boxes signify progressive recipients and related connections.
Part of the reason for my putting this together is to help you understand that Christianity in the US does have progressive connections which may be leading your church down a secular, relativist route. It’s also to help give Catholics reasons for boycotting the Campaign for Human Development collection later in November.
Documented sources for the chart:
Campaign for Human Development (CHD)
ACORN and Tides Foundation: The American Spectator, Michelle Malkin
This is by no means an exhaustive chart, but it gives you an idea of where some of your donations go and where your church or related institutions may get some of their money.
Hello, Catholic readers in the US!
This is just a reminder that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CHD) is coming up in November. Whilst this might be a bit early for you to think about it, please be aware of where this year’s funds will be going. Ask yourself: is it time to starve the beast?
For background on the CHD, as covered on Churchmouse Campanologist, click here and here.
Thanks to the USCCB list of 2009-2010 grantees — 26 pages — you now have the information below to pass along to your friends, families and fellow parishoners.
Who will be receiving funds from this year’s collection?
Read the document in full to see who will be receiving funds from your area. Here are a few snippets (emphasis mine for words or phrases that should set alarm bells ringing). Remember that CHD does not give to Catholic organisations!
Area A – New York City – Movement for Justice en El Barrio: a social justice organisation which is funding its own full-time … community organiser
Area A – Allentown, PA – Congregations United for Neighborhood Action (CUNA): a member of the PICO National Network and trains ‘ordinary people’ to become ‘leaders’ for their communities. Sounds like more community organising!
Area A – Philadelphia, PA – JUNTOS: Helping Mexican and Latino immigrants ‘build power for justice’ and ‘strengthen the ability to organise workers’ (day labourers).
Area A – Providence, RI – Fuerza Laboral: ‘immigrants and low-income workers who organise to end exploitation in the workplace’.
Area A – Providence, RI – The Rhode Island HUD Tenant Project, Inc.: They ‘organise the unorganised tenants’ into tenant associations that ‘take action‘
Area B – Chicago, IL – Southwest Organizing Project: The name says it all.
Area B – Chicago, IL – Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew: This ‘organizing center’ builds ‘leadership and power‘ of low-income parents.
Area B – Joliet, IL – DuPage United: This ‘network of institutions’ helps citizens to ‘take collective action‘ for ‘human dignity, social justice and the greater good‘.
Area B – Gary, IN – Central District Organizing Project: What’s in a name? They ‘bring together residents, religious and community organizations‘ into ‘a powerful coalition‘.
Area B – Baltimore, MD – United Workers Organization: This is an ‘organization of low wage workers who are organizing for better wages and working conditions’.
Area C – Washington, DC – Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland: This is ‘a congregation-based organization’ affiliated with the Gamaliel Foundation.
Area C – Miami, FL – Broward Organized Leaders Doing Justice: Helps support ‘organizing and training’ to ‘bring about systemic change‘.
Area C – Palm Beach County, FL – PEACE: A ‘community-based organization dedicated to building member organizations to effectively fight injustices‘ in low-income areas.
Area C – Baton Rouge, LA – Faith United for Empowerment and Leadership, Inc.: A PICO affiliate.
Area C – Baton Rouge, LA – Greater Baton Rouge IAF Sponsoring Committee: Part of Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation!
Area D – Tucson, AZ – Pima County Interfaith Council: Affiliated with Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation.
Area D – Des Moines, IA – A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy: A multi-faith ‘community organization‘ to help the ‘faith community live out its prophetic imperative for justice’.
Area D – Omaha, NE – Omaha Together One Community: A mix of church congregations, neighbourhood organizations and ‘a working affiliation with labor organizations‘.
Area D – Santa Fe, NM – Albuquerque Interfaith, Inc.: ‘A broad-based, multi-ethnic, power organization‘ affiliated with Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation.
Area D – Fargo, ND – New Sudanese Community Organization: ‘A new community organizing group’ for ‘a powerful and unified voice’.
Area E – Fresno, CA – Faith in Community: A PICO affiliate.
Area E – Los Angeles, CA – Southern California Education Fund: Part of Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation.
Area E – Los Angeles, CA – People Organized for Westside Renewal: It ’employs a community organizing strategy focused on relationship building and direct action‘.
Area E – Sacramento, CA – North Valley Sponsoring Committee: Part of the PICO Network.
Area E – Orange, CA – Orange County Congregation Community Organization: This is the OCCCO discussed in one of my earlier posts.
The choice is yours. Don’t forget that the descriptions of the organisations and their purpose is designed to work on your heartstrings and emotions. But, you can’t be completely sure what the reality is. So, give if you feel the need and do so at your own risk.
It’s disingenuous that the USCCB makes this statement, particularly with regard to ACORN, which many people knew about months before the bishops stopped the funding:
… the Bishops work very hard to promote [the CCHD mission] and protect it by careful review and monitoring of CCHD grants to make sure they comply with CCHD’s guidelines and Catholic teaching.
Alinsky (if he could see this) be proud to see the extent of infiltration in the Church! Why make his successors proud? Stop funding the CHD!
Tomorrow: More recipients of the CHD’s 2009 funding
To read previous posts about Saul Alinsky, the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CHD), click here.
The social activism of the Catholic clergy might appear to laypeople to have peaked in the 1970s, but that would be a mistaken view. It has merely gone mainstream, with funds still pouring in to the CHD via designated second collections at Masses across the country, normally in November.
Here are just a few examples of where CHD money has gone over the past 25 or more years:
- 1985: $40,000 for Chicago’s Developing Communities Project, led by then lead organiser, Barack Obama
- 1986: $33,000 for Obama’s Developing Communities Project, which Obama continued to lead
- 1992: ACORN funding (see below) for Project Vote, a Chicago programme which Obama also led
- 1995: Cardinal Bernardin helped commit $116,000 from the national CHD fund to Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors, an Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation organisation
- 2000 – 2008: $7m went to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), an Alinsky-influenced, leftist network under criminal investigation in several states. ACORN supports radical, ‘in your face’ local and national causes as well as abortion. CHD funding stopped only in November 2008, well after every other American wondered when the bishops would halt the allocation of $1m to the group.
- Ongoing: $20,000 to $30,000 per community group across the country under the guise of ‘community organisation’
- Also ongoing: 4% to 5% of total CHD funds to the Gamaliel Foundation, a Marxist socio-political network of Alinsky-inspired organisations
- Still ongoing: Alinsky’s own Industrial Areas Foundation, which receives 16% of CHD funds annually!
Barack Obama was still a lad when Alinsky died in 1972. So, how did he get to be so adept at Alinskyite techniques? One of his community organiser mentors was Greg Galuzzo, a former Jesuit, who was lead organiser for the aforementioned Gamaliel Foundation. Gamaliel has no direct connection with the Catholic Church and does not support Catholic teachings.
The Revd Owen Kearns, editor-in-chief and publisher of the National Catholic Register, was among a small group of representatives from the Catholic press in the United States who met with President Obama in July 2009. (H/T: Doug Lawrence’s blog.) Fr Kearns states (emphasis mine):
The President said he had fond memories of Cardinal Bernardin and that when he started his neighborhood project, they were funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development … The president spoke about how during Cardinal Bernardin’s time the U.S. bishops spoke about the nuclear freeze, the sanctuary movement, immigration and the poor, but that later a decided change took place. He said that the responses to his administration mirror the tensions in the Church overall, but that Cardinal Bernardin was pro-life and never hesitated to make his views known, but he had a consistent ‘seamless garment’ approach that emphasised the other issues, as well.
InsideCatholic.com explained last year:
99% of Catholics in the pews haven’t any idea of how much they have invested in building the political infrastructure that has now been activated to support Obama. That infrastructure always supports the Democratic Party and its candidate, but now they have a candidate who comes directly out of their political culture, well to the left of previous Democratic nominees like Gore and Kerry.
Yet, it’s not just laypeople who are ignorant of the facts. Catholic journalist Stephanie Block observes:
A few bishops understand exactly what the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is and approve what it funds. Most, however, swallow the concept of its ‘helping the poor’ and have probed no deeper. Busy about the Lord’s work of minding their dioceses, they’ve trusted others to run the ‘social justice’ offices.
It’s important to understand that the USCCB does not fund Catholic organisations and charities with CHD monies! This is because they wanted the CHD to be seen as impartial when the campaign was established in 1969. The American Catholic sagely notes:
The bishops could really help poor people by promptly shutting down CHD and giving any remaining funds to, for instance, Catholic inner-city schools. In any event, if there is a collection at your parish this month, I suggest that you return the envelope empty—and perhaps with a note of explanation—without the slightest moral hesitation.
For all of us still scratching our heads and wondering why this is allowed to go on, the Snow Report offers an answer:
For anti-capitalist radicals — as indeed for zealots generally — the ends justify the means. It has ever been so — for the Jacobins, the Communists, the fascists and now the post-modern Alinsky/Obama left. And that is because of the very nature of those ends as radicals conceive them. A world without poverty, war, racism, or ‘sexism’ is so noble, so perfect in contrast to everything that has preceded it — that it would be criminal not to deceive, lie … in order to advance or protect the cause.
You can also read more here: ‘The Influence of Saul Alinsky on the Campaign for Human Development’, Lawrence J Engel, December 1998
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