Tsk, Tsk, CRS!

TRANSCRIPT

Can there be any doubt left that the word “Catholic” needs to disappear from the entity called Catholic Relief Services?

This charade that they are Catholic has long outlasted its own usefulness. It's now just stupid. CRS is about as Catholic as the local Saul Alinsky Community Organizing Club renting space at Democratic party headquarters.

You’ll remember that Church Militant released a Special Report back in April in conjunction with the Lepanto Institute revealing that the outfit's Vice President for Overseas Finance Rick Estridge was an out-and -proud homosexual and had gotten civilly married to his sodomy partner. We even showed the marriage license from public records to make the point — not that anyone at supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services would have dared deny it.

Estridge not only had pictures all over his desk broadcasting his gaiety, but also was all over social media with it — and blasting traditional family groups in the process. 

Six weeks after the uproar began, it has now shifted gears. Estridge has resigned following the hoopla over the broadcast, and supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services has gone postal. In a statement, posted somewhere on their site, they first come to Estridge's defense as though he is a victim — because, of course, militant homosexuals are always the victim.

Then they turn on faithful Catholics for having the lack of charity to post the story and report the news.

Do you think Catholics who are being petitioned to financially support a supposedly Catholic outfit that hires same-sex married people have a right to know?

We do.

You are being asked by this group, cajoled by numerous bishops throughout the country, to give your money to supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services. The group gets hundreds of millions of dollars from the Obama-run government to supposedly fight poverty and go around the world fighting injustice — but at the same time, they directly contribute to that evil by spreading contraception, sterilization and so forth by funding local Third World groups that carry out the work. Then they cry foul when they get caught, refuse to address any details of the actual facts, and then turn around and hammer their critics, calling them names — a typical Saul Alinksy-type tactic, by the way, picked up on by the social justice and liberal elites.

But sometimes, those stories are a little hard to follow. You have to really concentrate on them because they are in far-off lands, there are a thousand acronyms, and trying to follow the money can require some thought. But here was one that required almost no thought. It was slam-dunk evidence that supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services was doing little else besides lip service to the Faith. It confirmed all the numerous previous reports from those far-off lands that when it comes to the Faith, those "Catholic" concerns are near the bottom of the list.

And they hate being exposed like this — hate it — which is why they go nuclear every time it comes more and more into focus. And this "gay married vice president stationed at headquarters" story really brings it into focus. And to show just how un-Catholic the supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services is, all you have to do is look at the language and sentence construction in their statement.

They first say that Estridge's job was only technical and did not require it to be filled by a Catholic. Hey, CRS — no one said it had to be a Catholic. But at your own headquarters, it is should be expected that someone living an intrinsically evil lifestyle would not be employed.

Do you allow out-and-proud racists to occupy "purely technical" positions?

They characterize our reporting as "attacks." Well, not to get all philosophical on you guys at CRS, but for you to call our reporting "attacks" is itself an attack. Tsk, tsk.

They also break another liberal sacrosanct rule by judging. They refer to Estridge as a "child of God." Hey, CRS — who are you to judge? How do you know the state of his soul? And for the theological record, unless Estridge and his sodomite partner are baptized, then they are not children of God. Only the baptized are children of the Father.  

Now I know that may come as a shock to your universalist, indifferent ear there at supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services — but that's the way it is. And that you don’t know that proves their point even more about your supposed Catholic identity.

Another point: They refer to Mr. Estridge and his sodomy-centered relationship as "a family."  Hey, supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services. Homosexuality -centered relationships never constitute a family by definition. They are relationships centered around a sexual practice that is neither life-giving nor life-affirming. That act does not even rise to the level of true sex, as in intercourse. It is nothing more than mutually masturbatory. In no way does a relationship centered around such acts constitute a "family" regardless of whatever emotions may be involved. Best friends don’t have to engage in sodomy to show their love and concern for each other.

But herein lies the revelation of the lack of any Catholic identity at CRS. They are theologically bereft. They have misunderstood and misapplied beautiful Catholic social doctrine and cooperated with evil in the process. They hide behind the skirts of the bishops’ conference, many of whose members themselves are void of and lacking in solid Catholic formation.

Estridge has resigned, more than likely with a handsome wad of cash — cash you were asked to dig into your pockets and cough up.

But don’t think he is gone. There is a line in the CRS statement that indicates Estridge may yet re-appear in the role of a contract consultant. And in the last paragraph there is whopper: "We are resolute in our commitment to the Church and all its teachings." Forgive us while we choke on that.

They are resolute in their commitment to the Church and all its teachings — apparently all except the one about the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts.

We ask them, supposedly "Catholic" Relief Services: With all your globe trotting for the physically impoverished, did anyone on staff try to convert Mr. Estridge and show him the poverty of his own lifestyle and try to bring him to the truth of Our Blessed Lord and His Holy Catholic Church?

Did any of his superiors give a concern at all for the potential scandal caused to the souls of other workers in his orbit, who may have had their own faith weakened or even lost owing to this situation? Don't you dare claim that you are Catholic when you allow a situation within your control to threaten the eternal lives of your staff. 

You hypocrites. You run a business largely dependent on government hand-outs and collecting donations from gullible Catholics you like to keep ignorant.

Bishop Sheen said it best many years ago: The Catholic Social Justice movement has Judas as its patron saint.

Beware of this outfit, Catholics. Give them nothing of your money. Stop feeding the beast.