MONTREAL, Quebec, March 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Canadian bishops’ charitable arm Development and Peace (D&P) says its partnership with Women for Change, an African feminist organization that actively campaigns for abortion and contraception, ended two years ago.
D&P delivered the news in a Facebook comment after one person texting the charity last week asked if it gives money to the group.
D&P responded: “Hi…Woman for Change [sic] is a former partner of D&P in Zambia. Our collaboration ended in 2012.”
Women for Change continues to list D&P as a partner on its own website.
The news comes after LifeSiteNews reported earlier this month that D&P had listed the pro-abortion feminist organization as a partner on its website. LifeSiteNews contacted D&P for comment while gathering information for the story, but did not receive one. Women for Change was shortly after removed from D&P’s website, before LifeSiteNews published the story.
While Women for Change was no longer listed on D&P’s website, it remained unclear at that time whether the partnership was ongoing, if it had ended after LifeSiteNews made inquiries, or if it had already ended but the group’s profile had inadvertently remained on the charity’s website.
LifeSiteNews had contacted Development and Peace repeatedly over the course of a week to ask about the partnership’s current status.
Reached once by phone and e-mail, D&P Communications Officer Kelly DiDomenico said she had “forwarded the message to the appropriate instances.” But there was no reply by press time several days later.
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In preparation for the story, LifeSiteNews had also spoken with Rene Laprise, the CCCB’s communications director, and Bishop John Boissonneau, chairman of the CCCB’s Standing Committee on Development and Peace, but both directed questions to Development and Peace.
While the Canadian bishops began a reform of D&P in 2010, the charity still profiles pro-abortion partners on its website.
Its website lists a partnership with the NGO Forum on Cambodia, which has called for greater access to “safe abortion,” and demanded recognition of women’s “reproductive rights.” The website also features a blog post promoting the Haitian group APROSIFA, which produced literature on how to obtain abortions and ran a health clinic in a Port-au-Prince shantytown that offered free contraception.
In 2012, the then-president of the CCCB, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, said Canada’s bishops “would not have patience for one minute to be supporting any partner that would in any way be pro-abortion.”
Development and Peace has refused to publish a full list of its partners since the scandal broke in 2009 over its funding of dozens of groups promoting abortion, contraception, and other evils.
See LifeSiteNews' extensive coverage of the Development and Peace scandal since 2009 here.
Contact:
Cardinal Robert Sarah
Pontifical Council Cor Unum
Palazzo San Pio X
V-00120 Vatican City State
Telephone: +39-06-69889411
Fax: +39-06-69887301 or +39-06-69887311
[email protected]
Most Reverend John A. Boissonneau
Chairman of the CCCB Standing Committee on Development and Peace
Phone: 416-207-4983
Fax: 416-207-4984
[email protected]