Screen shot of ‘After the Storm-Building the Pope Francis Village’ documentary by Development and Peace. In the wake of this natural disaster, Development and Peace launched an appeal that raised over $12 million and put in place a program that not only responded to the immediate humanitarian needs of survivors, but also organized the poorest communities to defend their rights and ensure their participation in the reconstruction process.
This is a developing story
Analysis
Bishops now have virtual control of D&P
Is this the end of D&P?
By Ted Alcuitas
Editor & Publisher
philippinecanadiannews.com
‘Linking the Diaspora’
In an unprecedented move by the bishops of Canada, funds collected for Development & Peace-Caritas Canada (D&P) and withheld by Western bishops has finally been approved for release, according to a source who requested anonymity.
The approval on October 31, 2018 came with a caveat: 52 partners of D&P are not to receive funds because of allegations of abortion-related activities alleged by the ultra-right wing LifeSiteNews.
“That is 30% of the 100 partners that D&P works with,” said the source.
The bishops could issue an official statement anytime soon to allay confusion among grassroots parishioners who have expressed dismay and frustration on why the funds have been sitting in archdiocesan coffers while the poor in the Global South are suffering.
But even as this developed, Vancouver Archbishop J.Michael Miller, (one of the 12 who withheld funds since April)) issued a letter on November 6, 2018 reiterating his decision to continue withholding the funds until the ‘investigation’ is finished. In a letter obtained by philippinecanadiannews.com (PCN.Com), Miller wrote:
“On April 11, 2018, I wrote to the faithful in our local Church to inform them that together with the dioceses of Western Canada, the Archdiocese of Vancouver would be temporarily withholding from Development and Peace funds collected in this year’s Share Lent campaign while an investigation of their partner agencies is underway.”
While he disapproved of D&P’s funding of unnamed partners, he endorses this Fall’s Education campaign of the 50-year old international organization.
Bishops become de-facto managers of D&P
This recent coup by the bishops complete an agenda started in 2009 by LifeSiteNews to discredit D&P through unfounded allegations based on online searches.
It is believed that two insiders in the CCCB have been leaking the information to LifesiteNews, according to our source.
This is the third time the bishops have withheld funds because of allegations raised by LifeSiteNews.
In its October 29, 2009 issue, the Toronto-based Catholic Register reported the release of funds noting that the funds had been withheld after “online reports began surfacing last March on LifeSiteNews.com alleging some of D&P’s overseas partners had been funding projects through agencies that were pro-abortion.
“The agency has operated independently of the CCCB, though two bishops sit on its board. The ad hoc committee will allow the bishops to “collaborate” with D&P to “ensure that the implementation of its mandate is in harmony with the identity and mission of the church,” according to the statement, The Catholic Register reported.
“The Permanent Council will create a second ad hoc committee to “develop an intermediate and a long-term strategy for the promotion of a culture of life and family in Canada,” The Register reported.
That was in 2009.
Now, it is a Standing Committee which means the Bishops conference is the de-facto Executive Committee of Development & Peace and will now decide what projects to fund or not.
And the criteria?
Is it pro-life?
Who is LifeSiteNews?
LifeSiteNews “is a non-profit Internet service dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family.” The website was founded by the Campaign Life Coalition which has a far right bias. Both sources are anti-abortion and opposed to gay marriage. (11/25/2016)
Source: https://www.lifesitenews.com/
The service was originally started by Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), a Canadian national pro-life organization headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Campaign Life Coalition, founded in 1978, was one of the first pro-life organizations to emphasize the international dimension of attacks on life and family. Along with a few other groups it pioneered pro-life lobbying at United Nations conferences. CLC president, Jim Hughes, is currently also vice-president of the International Right to Life Federation.
LifeSiteNews is part of a worldwide consortium of ultra-right news organizations that are currently in a struggle to discredit the current Pope.
According to a Reuters report, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s letter denouncing Pope Francis was “translated into English by Diane Montagna of the conservative LifeSiteNews, which published it at the same time and often carries full texts of speeches by Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the pope’s fiercest critics.”
The U.S. and Italian conservative Catholic media are “all part of one world,” claims The Washington Post .
The other news organizations identified by the Washington Post includes Lepanto, the
Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) which owns The National Catholic Register and Catholic News Agency (CNA) . These news outlets represents the centre core of conservative Catholic media, with LifeSiteNws.com viewed as leaning more towards advocacy than journalism and Church militant.com even more so, according to The Washington Post.
LifeSite has been sued for libel by the late Fr. Raymond Gravel in 2011 for $500,000 but the suit was dropped on his death in 2014.
Salt & Light’s Fr.Thomas Rosica criticizes Lifesite, calling it “a form of unthinking activism akin to a shooting gallery”
“It was Fr. Raymond Gravel’s lawsuit against LifeSiteNews that provoked Fr. Rosica to once again condemn this news service with his comments in an article about the lawsuit written by Montreal correspondent Graeme Hamilton in last Saturday’s National Post.
“At best,” he is quoted as saying, “the activity of LifeSite is a form of unthinking activism akin to a shooting gallery. Now and then they hit a target. More often, however, they leave a vast trail of collateral damage, character assassination and destruction of reputations of good people…”,according to LifeSite’s website.