Originally printed in the National Catholic Register on July 9th, 2000.

by CELESTE McGOVERN
and REGISTER STAFF

BALTIMORE - In the wake of a Register story detailing public links between Catholic Relief Services and the pro-abortion March of Women 2000, CRS denied that it had ever supported the march.

New information disclosed to the Register, however, indicates that a CRS staff official endorsed the March of Women, in writing, as early as June 1997.

Other information indicates that CRS staff failed to publicly distance the organization from the march after its sister organization in Canada asked Catholic Relief Services earlier this year to clarify if it was supporting the march.

The March of Women is an international coalition opposing poverty and violence against women that supports abortion and homosexual marriage. Support for the march by four major Canadian Catholic organizations - including CRS' counterpart, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace - has caused deep division among Canadian bishops.

The CRS board, composed of its chairman, Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, and 12 other bishops, immediately initiated action to disavow support for the march after the Register's story in its June 25-July 1 edition.

A press release said the Register's front-page story had "stated incorrectly that Catholic Relief Services supports the March of Women 2000." Paulist Father John Geaney, CRS' priest director of Church affairs, told the Register on June 26 that "Catholic Relief Services does not, has not, and will not support the March of Women."

But the initial Register story, "Catholic Relief Services Supports Pro-Abortion March," was based on three sources confirming that fact, including CRS staff.

The Web site of the March of Women, www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000/ listed "Catholic Relief Services-USCC" as a "U.S. participating group." The pro-abortion National Organization for Women, the U.S. coordinators of the march, expressed knowledge of the participation. Register correspondent Celeste McGovern called Catholic Relief Services three times to ask about the march. She was directed to speak to communications assistant Moria Byrne, who confirmed CRS support, named Janis Lindsteadt as the CRS contact person for the march, and seemed at times to be in consultation with other staffers about the questions. Byrne declined the reporter's repeated requests to speak to other officials.

In a fourth call before publication, Register assistant editor Tom McFeely contacted Byrne and, at her request, provided a summary of her remarks that would be used in the article. Byrne expressed no objections to this summary.

Why a Catholic Group?

After the article was in print, more confirmation of involvement by some CRS staffers emerged.

Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, explained that Catholic supporters such as Catholic Relief Services were important to the march because their names would provide "shock value" when the march's list of supporters was presented to Congress.

Brigitte Verdiere, spokeswoman for the Montreal-based March of Women, told the Register that Catholic Relief Services had supported the march since June 23, 1997, and that the agency had not asked to be removed from its list of supporters until June 27 of this year - two days after the Register story's date.

Verdiere said that all 4,000 supporters on the Web site, including Catholic Relief Services, endorsed the march by filling out a sign-up "coupon." Verdiere faxed to the Register a copy of the 1997 reply coupon filled out by Catholic Relief Services. Janis Lindsteadt is listed there as contact person, along with her personal contact information at the agency.

In June 1997, Lindsteadt was program development coordinator of gender, peace-building and justice for Catholic Relief Services. The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace also listed Catholic Relief Services as a march supporter until shortly after the Register published its story.

The Development and Peace Web site, www.devp.org/anglais/wmqanda.htm had stated, in part, "The March is endorsed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Canadian Religious Conference, the Catholic Women's League of Canada, Catholic Relief Services in the United States … and other Catholic groups and religious communities around the world."

On June 28, Mary Corkery, English education director of Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, told the Register that about six weeks earlier, she initiated contact with Catholic Relief Services to confirm whether it was actually a supporter of the March of Women. She said CRS staffers have never formally responded to her organization's requests.

Father Geaney confirmed that Corkery had contacted Catholic Relief Services director of communications Nanci Martin by telephone.

The Denials

Interviewed on June 29 and June 30, Father Geaney reiterated that Catholic Relief Services had never formally supported the March of Women, but claimed that Byrne had "incorrectly" confirmed that support.

It was a "leap of logic" to say that Catholic Relief Services was backing the march, he said, because such an endorsement could only come through a formal decision by the organization's executive or board of directors. No such endorsement has been made, or ever would be made in support of a pro-abortion initiative, he insisted. As well, he said, a search of CRS financial records had not turned up any record of financial support for the March of Women.

This leaves unanswered how CRS could end up, in fact, on public Web sites, as endorsing the march.

Regarding the CRS coupon on file with the March of Women, Father Geaney said in a written statement, "In 1997, as the Program Coordinator for Gender, Peacebuilding and Justice at CRS, Janis Lindsteadt requested information about an anti-poverty march of women by sending in a reply coupon. Janis stated that she used the coupon to obtain more information, not to indicate support of the march. At no time was Janis coordinating any level of activity or participation in the march on behalf of the agency."

However, the March of Women "Reply Coupon" reads, "We want to be part of this massive project for the year 2,000. Here is where we can be reached," and then provides space for the enlisting organization's name, contact person, and additional contact information. March of Women spokeswoman Verdiere told the Register that only groups, not individuals, are eligible to be listed. She added that of the more than 4,000 groups who filled out the coupon and are listed as sponsors, Catholic Relief Services is the only group ever to request to be delisted.

Staff, Rather Than Bishops

Russell Shaw, who served for 18 years as the spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Catholic Conference, told the Register, "Pretty clearly, the endorsement of the women's march by CRS represents a serious mistake by staff rather than a decision by the bishops in charge of CRS. It is regrettable that the bishops did not know about this staff action and take steps to prevent it or at least to repudiate it sooner, but, unfortunately, foul-ups like this are not uncommon in large organizations. For the sake of the Church, I hope everybody involved has learned a lesson from this embarrassing episode."

In Canada, division over Catholic participation in the March of Women continues to deepen. Along with the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Women's League and the Canadian Religious Conference have formally supported it.

However, many senior Church officials, including Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto and Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver, have said Catholics should not be involved due to the march's promotion of abortion and homosexual rights. Cardinal Ambrozic and Archbishop Exner have instructed that diocesan funding for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace be withheld to express their displeasure with the aid group's involvement.

On June 26, Auxiliary Bishop Nicola De Angelis of Toronto, who is also the spiritual adviser of the Catholic Women's League in Ontario, released a letter to provincial Catholic Women's League President Elizabeth Brown explaining his own opposition to the March of Women.

Even though the march had some good objectives, Bishop De Angelis said, "there are at the same time explicit attacks on Catholic family values, namely abortion on demand and lesbian rights - objectives totally opposed to those of the Roman Catholic Church. It is my firm conviction that we cannot mix good and bad objectives in the hope that good results might be achieved."

Side Bar
From Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services does not support, nor are we participating in the March of Women 2000. Catholic Relief Services remains faithful to its position of respecting life in all stages from the moment of conception to natural death. The headline in the [National] Catholic Register of June 25th is not true. Catholic Relief Services does not support pro-abortion activities of any kind.

Had your reporter spoken with me or a CRS executive, we would have been able to clearly indicate that CRS could not support any activity that endorsed abortion. CRS is an organization owned and operated by the Catholic Bishops of the United States. Twelve other Bishops join with me in composing the CRS Board of Directors.

Having learned on June 23rd that the Catholic Relief Service's name was listed, without official CRS authorization, on the March of Women 2000 Web site, CRS officials acted immediately and requested that the name be removed. A reply coupon sent in 1997 to the March Mondiale des Femmes organizers by a CRS employee was sent without any knowledge that the march then or in the future would have anything to do with abortion.

I believe it is essential to clarify issues raised by the newspaper about abortion lest your readers be left with a false impression of Catholic Relief Services and its work. In our document, Called to Global Solidarity, the Bishops of the United States reminded us that as Catholics we accept God's charge to care for all human life in all its stages.

Catholic Relief Services continues to answer the Bishops' call to solidarity by reaching out to the poor and vulnerable with programs of international relief and development in more than 80 countries.

We do that because we are members of God's one human family and acknowledge our duties to people in far off places.

As the recent document adopted by the Bishops on Civility in Media points out, "Catholic media in particular need to do their work with the assumption that Catholics share one faith and one baptism and that Catholics expect the media to reflect the love expected of all Catholics."

Bishop John Ricard
of Pensacola-Tallahassee,
President and Chairman of the Board, Catholic Relief Services

From the Editor

Many Register readers have contacted us about plans to stop donating money to Catholic Relief Services because of its endorsement of the pro-abortion Women's March 2000.

We think that would be a sad mistake. First, it appears that Catholic Relief Services never gave any money to the march, so this does not seem to be a question of a misuse of donated funds.

Second, to their credit, the bishops in charge of Catholic Relief Services were quick to disassociate the agency from the march after the Register's story was published in our June 25 edition.

According to information obtained by the Register, a CRS endorsement was given to the march on June 23, 1997, by the agency's Program Development Coordinator for Gender, Peacebuilding and Justice. The endorsement became public on two Web sites and was recognized by the National Organization of Women. CRS staffers failed to revisit it after inquiries earlier this year from their sister organization in Canada. CRS staffers were well aware of the march when the Register first called about it, and refused the Register's requests to speak to higher-ups at Catholic Relief Services.

Two of the goals of the March of Women 2000 are atrocious: to demand the United Nations provide universal access to abortion-on-demand and to make homosexual sex-partners equal in status to married couples worldwide. For any Catholic group to be involved with such a campaign is a scandal. For an official agency of the Church to be involved is a very grave matter. The Church's name should never be used to confer moral legitimacy on an organization that is causing such great damage.

Even early on, the ideological nature of the march was clear. That CRS staffers retained the link to the march when its pro-abortion nature was full-blown is a salutary warning on the need for vigilance over Catholic organizations.

How is it possible that a respected Catholic agency could get co-opted by the enemies of the Church to publicly endorse the promoters of the culture of death? And who is ultimately responsible for preventing similar abuses in the future?

We can be proud that, in the United States, there was no question of whether or not to support this march when the Register brought these facts to light.

Our suggestion: Keep giving generously to Catholic Relief Services. Its excellent work serving the poor is too important to sacrifice, and its commitment to the culture of life has been unambiguously reaffirmed.

Tom Hoopes
Executive Editor