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Pro-Abortion Organization Upset by LifeSiteNews' Coverage of Development and Peace

Recognizes and supports CCODP's funding of pro-abortion movement

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

UNITED STATES, May 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An abortion advocacy group in the US has criticized LifeSiteNews for exposing the involvement of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) with the funding of pro-abortion, homosexualist, and anti-Catholic groups in foreign countries.

"RH Reality Check," a blog created by Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation for the purpose of promoting abortion "rights," has published an article by a contributor who recognizes that, indeed, CCODP money is going to groups that promote "reproductive freedom," a standard euphemism that pro-abortion groups use that includes abortion and contraception.

Kathleen Reeves, a regular RH Reality Check contributor, writes that "A threat from without is less alarming than a threat from within. LifeSiteNews, which 'emphasizes the social worth of traditional Judeo-Christian principles,' with a particular interest in Catholicism, is incensed by its discovery of that most egregious of combinations: the Catholic Church and reproductive freedom."

Disgusted by LifeSiteNews' continuing series of exposés on the pro-abortion groups funded by CCODP, Reeves writes that "[LifeSiteNews'] message to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, and to other wayward Catholics, is clear: we stand for 'universal norms of morality,' not tolerance. We provide rules and lectures before humanitarian aid. If this comes at the cost of development, so be it. Because in Latin America and around the world, we, rather than the people we serve, know best when their bodies and souls are healthy."

John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, commented: "We are all for aiding the poor and downtrodden, and encourage support for those many groups which carry out such actions showing consistent care and concern for the poor.  However, organizations which lobby for abortion, even if they are doing other good things, are acting against the lives of those very poor people that they are claiming to want to serve. There are many good groups serving the poor in those nations which do not lobby for abortion, homosexuality and other destructive behaviours.  Why not fund them instead?"

Pro-abortion blogger "RevDave" is even more frank about Development and Peace. "When I first covered the controversy, I admitted that I was a little surprised to learn that Development and Peace, as a Catholic group, was permitted to get away with funding pro-choice groups in the first place. Not that I had a problem with it, mind you, since I am pro-choice myself. I was simply surprised that a Catholic NGO was on the same side as me for a change," he wrote on April 23 on his blog, "Terrible Depths."

To date the CCODP has not admitted that it routinely funds leftist pro-abortion and pro-contraception organizations that are promoting an anti-life agenda in many parts of the world. However, an investigation into the original five Mexican CCODP partners that LSN reported on is currently underway, being conducted by several bishops and senior CCODP staff. The results of that investigation are expected by June.

Related Links:

RH Reality Check's Article on Development and Peace:
"Catholic Aid Organization's Subversive Support of Latin Americans"
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/05/06/catholic-aid-organizations-subvers...

Catholic Front Group Turns Anti-Woman in D&P "Scandal"
http://terribledepths.blogspot.com/2009/04/catholic-front-group-turns-anti-woman...

Related LifeSiteNews coverage:

See all LifeSiteNews coverage of the unfolding Development and Peace scandal at:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/features/DevelopmentPeace/

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