US bishops’ relief agency defends alliance with aid organization

Catholic Relief Services, the official overseas relief agency for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says that it worked with a leading Catholic bioethics group in conducting careful reviews to ensure that its funding decisions were in alignment with Church teaching.

“Catholic Relief Services, in communion with the Church, strictly upholds Catholic moral teaching,” the organization said.

“All of the CRS programs and all of the funds used by CRS are entirely consistent with Church teaching.”

In a statement provided to CNA, the group responded to recent concerns raised about its funding of CARE, an international humanitarian organization that provides relief to the needy in developing nations but also offers contraception and early abortion-inducing drugs.

Catholic Relief Services said that it has “always has taken very seriously decisions we make about the groups with which we collaborate or form partnerships to ensure that we are not violating the Church teachings.”

The agency stressed that it promotes “abstinence and Natural Family Planning as embraced by the Church” and reiterated that it does not “fund, support or participate in any programming or advocacy that is not in line with Church teaching, including artificial birth control.”

The organization said that concerns over CARE had previously been raised. In response, it teamed with Dr. John Haas of the National Catholic Bioethics Center to undertake “a thorough review” of all its partnerships.

The resulting report determined that the activities being reviewed did not “suggest support of or involvement in immoral activities” and that there was “no material cooperation with evil.” [More]

SOURCE

CNA