Two true stories, both dating back to the Sunday before Thanksgiving, when the US bishops took up the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD):
- In a parish in the south, a visiting priest was giving a strong homily about reverence for human life, explicitly condemning abortion, when a woman in the congregation stood up to interrupt him.
No, she wasn’t denouncing the Church’s teaching. Nor was she telling about her own experience with abortion. This parishioner was challenging the priest. If he agreed that cooperation with abortion is unacceptable, she said, why was the parish taking up the collection for the CCHD, which provides financial support for groups that promote abortion?
Taken aback, the priest said that he couldn’t believe the US bishops would endorse an agency that was complicit in abortion advocacy. But the parishioner was ready for him, with compelling evidence that the CCHD does exactly that. Eventually the priest conceded that, if parishioners believed the criticism, they should not donate to the CCHD.
The collection was held in that parish, but the baskets came back virtually empty.
Continue reading at Catholic Culture