Bishops Breaking the Law?

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A new petition is asking the federal government to step in and begin investigating U.S. bishops for breaking the law.

A recent report by Catholic watchdog organization the Lepanto Institute reveals Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the charitable arm of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference, has been partnering with abortion-pushing organizations in Nigeria and Cameroon.

Lepanto's Michael Hichborn: "CRS is directly imperiling the souls and lives of young girls by including them in a referral network ... It's a direct complicity."

The petition, launched yesterday at WhiteHouse.gov, needs at least 100,000 signatures by the end of June and is asking the White House to become proactive in encouraging Congress to dig into CRS for being in violation of the Mexico City Policy.

That policy denies U.S. taxpayer funding to any organization involved in the abortion industry, which is problematic for CRS because it receives hundreds of millions from Washington and at the same time is partnered with abortion-providing agencies in the African countries — a clear violation of the policy.

Hichborn has approached U.S. bishops, but they've resisted third party investigations, allowing CRS to investigate itself.

Hichborn: "The only recourse we have is to take it to the government and say 'Look, they seemed to have violated the Mexico City Policy and the Siljander Amendment and if they have done that, then you're the only ones that have any authority to do anything about it.'"

In the 2002 and 2018 clerical sex-abuse revelations it's become obvious to critics many U.S. bishops were not serious about rooting out sex abuse, and it's the same story with CRS.

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