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Pope Francis with the board of directors of the Hilton FoundationVatican News

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Welcoming the board of the Hilton Foundation at the Vatican today, Pope Francis praised their philanthropic works despite the foundation giving millions of dollars to fund pro-abortion efforts.

Early Wednesday morning, Pope Francis met with the board of directors of the Conrad Hilton Foundation during a select, private audience at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. “In our time, as the numbers of the poor and excluded in our world continue to increase, which is notable, you have chosen to commit yourselves actively to promoting human dignity, personally with passion and compassion, like the Good Samaritan,” he told them.

Journalists were informed of the meeting, but its existence was kept secret until publication of the Pope’s list of audiences later in the day – as sometimes happens with certain meetings with high profile individuals at the Vatican.

“Your foundation,” Francis continued, “has shown how such generosity and commitment can transform the lives of those who find themselves in situations of vulnerability. The service you freely offer in the fields of education, health, refugee assistance and the fight against poverty is a concrete testimony of love and compassion.”

Founded by Conrad N Hilton in 1944, the foundation has grown to amass over $7 billion in assets, portions of which are annually bestowed to various organizations and bodies in grants.

Its philanthropy focuses on seven areas:

  • Supporting Catholic sisters in their work to the tune of over $614 million to over 300 groups in 30 countries
  • Early childhood development
  • Foster youth
  • Homelessness
  • Opportunity youth
  • Refugees
  • Safe water

The foundation makes much of its support for, and appreciation of, the humanitarian work of Catholic religious sisters around the world. Indeed, the directors’ meeting with Francis was focused on “an immersive learning experience of the work being undertaken by Catholic sisters.”

However, despite a much-publicized Catholic support, the organization has poured many millions into promoting access to contraception and abortion.

Hosting an article on the foundation’s webpage in 2018, the directors decried how a woman featured in the story “had no knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, let alone access to contraception.” By recounting how the woman’s family “rejected” her once she was pregnant, the foundation added a call for increased support for contraceptive access: “social and economic support, particularly around poverty, mental health, early childhood development, sexual and reproductive health, and maternal and child health.”

A number of grants publicly listed by the Hilton Foundation document many millions given to promote “reproductive and sexual health care,” the commonly employed phrase to refer to contraception and abortion access.

In early 2021, for instance, Mount Sinai Hospital was awarded a grant of $1 million from the foundation in order to “provide integrated medical, sexual and reproductive health, and behavioral and mental health services to young people with a history of foster care involvement, including LGBTQ youth, CSEC youth and pregnant and parenting young people.”

In the first few months of 2022, the Hilton Foundation gave $3.8 million to the National Center for Youth Law specifically for the purpose of supporting “a collective impact campaign that will increase access to reproductive and sexual health care, economic assets and financial supports, improve wellbeing outcomes and reduce unwanted pregnancies and child removals among foster youth in Los Angeles.” The same center had received some $2.4 million from the foundation in 2019 and $1.6 million in 2016, again to promote “access to reproductive and sexual health care” and to reduce “unwanted pregnancies among foster youth” in the Los Angeles area.

One grant that is still active as the board of directors met the Pope today was a grant of $750,000 to the California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ). The CLRJ strongly argues that “abortion is health care” and works to promote ready access to abortion pills for women.

The foundation’s grant to the CLRJ is officially to “elevate the needs of young parents in Southeast Los Angeles and increase their advocacy capacity around ECD issues that impact their families.”

The CLRJ’s website

While Pope Francis has often compared abortion with “hiring a hitman,” that has not stopped him from regularly welcoming notable abortion activists at the Vatican or maintaining close relationships with people like notorious Italian abortionist Emma Bonino.

As such, his public record of notably favorable treatment to prominent abortion activists has led to questions about a disconnect between his words and actions.

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