Friday, March 29, AD 2024 3:27am

Head of CCHD Was Treasurer For Pro-Abort Candidate

(This post is from January of 2011.  The Texas State Senator Wendy Davis  who led the filibuster against the Texas law banning abortion after 20 weeks, go here to read all about it, is the same Wendy Davis in this story.  Remember this and never give one thin dime to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.)

 

In a dog bites man story, and an example of good blog journalism, Creative Minority Report has broken the news that the head of the CCHD, Ralph McCloud, while he was head of the CCHD, was the campaign treasurer for pro-abort Wendy Davis in her successful run in 2008 for the Texas State Senate:

While the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has come under well deserved scrutiny for supporting groups such as ACORN and groups with ties to promoting abortion, CMR has uncovered that Ralph McCloud, while heading the CCHD in 2008, was simultaneously working as a highly placed campaign official for a pro-choice politician seeking to unseat a pro-life politician.

As you likely know, CCHD is the bishops’ anti-poverty program which funds community organizing and economic development projects and has been at the center of a number of controversies. Ralph McCloud was named head of the CCHD in November 2007. In his first year as head of the CCHD, according to public records, McCloud also worked as the Treasurer for Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrat Wendy Davis.

Why would the director of the CCHD, during his tenure as head of an ostensibly Catholic institution act as champion and treasurer of a campaign for a pro-abortion politician seeking to oust a pro-life politician? This is the textbook definition of scandal.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s website, “the CCHD fully upholds the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life from conception through natural death.” But acting as Treasurer for a pro-choice politician means that every single yard sign, every press release, every brochure or pamphlet of the Davis campaign had Ralph McCloud’s name on it. So in short, while heading up the CCHD, McCloud was very publicly working against the stated goals of the organization he oversaw.

Isn’t that a bit confusing to Catholics? Isn’t that in itself a scandal to the faithful?

McCloud himself labeled questions about another CCHD employee John Carr’s commitment to the pro-life cause “very disturbing allegations” which he believed were unfounded. CMR believes it to be equally disturbing that McCloud would work for a campaign garnering donations from Annie’s List (a pro-choice PAC), Planned Parenthood and ACORN. So pro-choice was the Davis campaign that in fact, Annie’s List, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Davis in 2008 while McCloud worked as Treasurer. The group even gave a spirited endorsement of the pro-choice Davis, who succeeded in defeating her pro-life opponent.

Go here to read the rest at Creative Minority Report.

 

Here is the website of the CCHD showing Ralph McCloud as director.  Here is a bio piece on Ralph McCloud produced by the USCCB when he was named director of the CCHD.

McCloud has coordinated the peace and justice ministry in the Fort Worth Diocese and directed CCHD in the diocese since 1995. He has headed the diocese’s African American ministries since 1990. He also serves as a board member of the Roundtable, the National Association of Diocesan Social Ministry Directors.

Active in the civic community, McCloud was elected to four two-year terms to the Fort Worth City Council, in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003. He served as Fort Worth’s mayor pro-tem from 1999 to 2005. He currently chairs the Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness in Fort Worth.

In other civic activities, he was president of the Fort Worth Local Housing Development Council and served four terms on the National League of Cities’ Human Development Steering Committee.

McCloud attended Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, and was co-founder of the African-American Summit for Peace, Justice and Equality. He is a past-president of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators.

Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB general secretary, noted McCloud’s reputation as a “respected and experienced social ministry leader with strong ties to CCHD.”

“Ralph’s profound commitment to the Catholic Church enables him to communicate the biblical, theological and spiritual dimensions of Catholic social ministry and the principles that guide CCHD’s mission of empowering people trapped in the cycle of poverty,” Msgr. Malloy said.

Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth praised the appointment saying, “Ralph has served the Diocese of Fort Worth for 14 years, assisting faithfully both the late Bishop Joseph Delaney and myself. He will be a great asset at the USCCB.”

Wendy Davis was on the Fort Worth city council with McCloud prior to her run for the state senate.  I find the bio of McCloud interesting for two reasons.  He is obviously a man who has received a lot of training by the Church, and it clearly had zero impact on his ability to comprehend that working to elect a total pro-abort betrays everything the Church stands for .  The second reason is that he is a poster child for the lay “professional Catholic” Church-o-crat, living off Church employment, while working against Church teaching;   a bad waste of donations to the Church, and a phenomenon that Catholics have become all too familiar with since Vatican II.

From all of this we can draw the following lessons:  A pro-life Catholic would have to be an idiot to give a thin dime to the CCHD, and the USCCB is not to be trusted.  Of course we already knew both of these things before, didn’t we?

Update:  Ralph McCloud remains Director of the CCHD, a true slap in the face to every faithful Catholic.  Here is a link to his twitter feed.

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Don the Kiwi
Don the Kiwi
Wednesday, June 26, AD 2013 7:15pm

Are the bishops – or have they been – directly confronted over this?
I find it staggering that this has continued for so many years.

Cynthia
Cynthia
Wednesday, June 26, AD 2013 7:42pm

I just sent them an email regarding this. I doubt I’ll get a response but I think it needs to be confronted.

suzanne
suzanne
Thursday, June 27, AD 2013 6:02am

….big government, big church!

Missy
Missy
Thursday, June 27, AD 2013 7:13am

I sent an email to Archbisop Lori (Baltimore) with links. Never got a reply. I feel it’s a lost cause. Gov. O’Malley goes to daily mass, the priests at his church put a letter in the bulletin telling the parishioners to basically shut up about it. I know for a fact that priests voted for Obama, and I’m sure that bishops did, too. Cling to Christ, He’s the only one that can work out this mess. I fear for their souls, but then am labeled as a judgmental racist bigot. Whatever happened to the works of mercy?

trackback
Thursday, June 27, AD 2013 11:24am

[…] Head of CCHD Was Treasurer For Pro-Abort Candidate » « DOMA Overturned, Prop 8 Case Dismissed for Lack of Standing […]

3rdstringer
3rdstringer
Saturday, June 29, AD 2013 12:27pm

Who’s approaching Cardinal Dolan?

lee faber
Tuesday, July 9, AD 2013 11:59am

Any updates on this?

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