WASHINGTON, July 14 (LSN.ca) - On June 25 the US National Catholic Register published a story indicating that Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the US counterpart of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), had endorsed the World March of Women 2000. The story pointed out the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual demands of the March. It noted further that the US arm of the march is being coordinated through the office of the pro-abortion National Organization for Women in Washington. The register notes that the only other nominally Catholic group signed on to the march in the United States is Catholics For a Free Choice.
Although support for the March on behalf of CRS was confirmed by CRS staff and by the World March website, the CRS board, composed of its chairman, Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, and 12 other bishops reacted quickly to the Register story saying that CRS never supported the March. The bishops note that staff at the CRS were guilty of feigning support without authorization. In the Register on July 9 it was noted that two days after the story broke the World March received an official request to remove CRS from its list of supporters. Paulist Father John Geaney, CRS’ priest director of Church affairs, told the Register on June 26 that “Catholic Relief Services does not, has not, and will not support the March of Women.”
The Register quotes Patricia Ireland, president of National Organization for Women, advancing the abortion agenda by exploiting the apparent Catholic support of the March. Ireland explained that Catholic supporters such as Catholic Relief Services were important to the march because their names would provide “shock value” when the march’s list of supporters was presented to Congress. A letter from Ireland on the March says that the march opposes threats to “abortion rights” and to partial-birth abortion, as well as courts questioning the constitutionality of bubble zones around abortuaries.
For all the March coverage check LifeSite at: http://www.lifesite.net/clc/womens_march/index.html (The articles from the NCR will be on LifeSite in a few days)