By John-Henry Westen
MONTREAL, May 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Judie Brown, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, has confirmed the accuracy of the LifeSiteNews.com revelations about the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P). Brown, Founder and President of American Life League, the largest grassroots pro-life educational organization in the United States released a commentary today commenting on the scandal.
“In order to confirm any concerns we might have, since we knew that the CCODP was accusing LifeSiteNews of reporting false information, we engaged the services of a researcher to independently investigate the reports that have all been posted on the LifeSiteNews web site,” explained Brown.
Brown notes that LSN, “provided direct evidence from the web sites of the abortion groups in question showing their advocacy. Direct links to the web sites of the groups allow for verification of the facts.”
American Life League is the second organization to confirm LifeSiteNews.com’s reports on D&P. In late March, Priests for Life Canada issued a letter to all Canadian Bishops which confirmed as “facts” the LifeSiteNews.com revelations “that several ‘development partners’ of Development and Peace have been engaged in the push to legalize abortion in Mexico and distribute condoms in Africa, among other actions.”
The findings have also been verified and even expanded upon by numerous bloggers and Catholic activists throughout Canada and abroad, most notably John Pacheco of SoCon or Bust. While several Canadian bishops have withheld funding from D&P pending the results of the investigation, none have yet publicly acknowledged the LifeSiteNews.com revelations as fact. Two Canadian archbishops have however publicly alleged that the LifeSiteNews.com reports were “false” and “untrue”, basing their statements on false statements by D&P.
Given the ease with which the allegations in LSN’s reports on D&P were verified, Brown said she was “astounded” at a recent D&P letter insisting it was not involved in any wrongdoing, even after it conducted an “investigation” into five of its Mexcian partners. “Something is clearly wrong; there is indeed a bit of double-speak going on and that does suggest corruption to us,” she commented.
Brown concludes: “At this point, one can only hope and pray that when the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops investigation is completed, LifeSiteNews will be vindicated, CCODP will be cleaned out and Canadian Catholics can once again donate to a truly Catholic charitable outreach to the third world.
“It would be reassuring to know that from now on, Catholic donations are not in the least way involved with any organization that promotes the vile act of abortion or provides contraception, sterilization or other such horrendous ‘services’ to the poor.”
See Judie Brown’s full commentary here:
https://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php?id=2621