(LifeSiteNews) — Dissident Catholic Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico is upset that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made cuts to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), a program that has been giving millions of dollars to pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, Marxist-aligned organizations since 1969.
Wester is one of the most heterodox churchmen in the entire United States. He currently serves as the liaison between the USCBB and the heretical Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP), an organization that was recently prevented from having a presence at the upcoming National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
The AUSCP was founded in 2011. Claiming to draw inspiration from the Second Vatican Council, it supports married clergy, “women priests,” the normalization of homosexuality in the Church, pro-LGBT political policies, and numerous other positions at odds with immutable Catholic teaching.
Wester attended the group’s annual meeting last month to receive its John XXIII award. Left-wing Jesuit Thomas Reese delivered a speech on synodality. Reese previously attended a brunch at the White House with Joe Biden on St. Patrick’s Day. Unsurprisingly, he supports homosexual clergy, married priests, and women deacons.
In a column for liberal website America magazine, Wester expressed outrage over news that more than seven staff members were let go by the USCCB as part of a restructuring of the Justice, Peace, and Human Development office that oversees the CCHD.
Wester was especially agitated because at the Bishops’ Spring Assembly in June, USCCB president Timothy P. Broglio said that their “ongoing commitment to the vital work of fighting poverty was clear.”
In his essay, Wester claims that “the recent announcement of major layoffs at the department of the U.S. bishops dedicated to the social witness of the church undermines that mission.” The “Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development helps our conference bring Catholic social doctrine alive in the Catholic community through education and outreach.”
One can hardly fault Wester for his frustration. For him and the other liberal bishops appointed by Francis who are complaining about the decision, the purpose of the Catholic faith is to primarily engage in corporate works of mercy. But Christ wasn’t a community organizer. Nor was his “social mission,” as Wester calls it, aimed at securing the material needs and wants of the citizens of 1st century Jerusalem. If it were, he would’ve pulled a Jimmy Carter and spent his time on this earth building houses. In reality, when Our Lord spoke about setting the captives free, feeding the hungry, and lifting the oppressed out of poverty, he was referring to our spiritual needs to be liberated from Original Sin, to eat the Bread of Life, and have the gates of heaven opened for us.
Phil Lawler over at Catholic Culture has praised the CCHD’s cuts. While drawing attention to the overwrought reaction liberals have had in recent days, Lawler reminded his readers that the sky is not falling and that the bishops are not any less dedicated to helping the poor.
“The USCCB staff cuts will not increase the likelihood of World War III, nor will they impoverish anyone other than the staffers whose work has been subsidized by the Catholic faithful,” he wrote. “At best this USCCB office has exercised a slight— mostly symbolic— influence on federal government policies. At worst, the policies that the bishops have supported may have aggravated social problems.”
While cuts to the CCHD are welcome news, Catholics need to continue exposing it for the money laundering scheme it is. Any initiative that bears the name Catholic and purports to act on behalf of the Church when giving money to left-wing, pro-abortion organizations that undermine Christ’s moral teachings is a stain on the Church’s true social mission and should be ended immediately.