I am sure many of you have already been made aware of the gravely disappointing actions of the Richmond, VA Catholic Charities in helping a young woman get an abortion. Today I received an email letter from Michael Hichborn at American Life League (the man you see in some of the Pro-life Youtube videos on this blog- see the Connecticut Catholic Corner: Don't be Fooled! post) and he's asked me to please share the information on my blog. So here is Mr. Hichborn's letter in its entirety:
Dear Pro-life Friends,
As you may be aware, American Life League has been covering a scandal in Richmond, VA where four employees of a Catholic Charities actually helped a teenaged Guatemalan immigrant obtain an abortion. What is so terrible about this is that Bishop DiLorenzo actually knew about the abortion that was to take place the following morning, and did nothing to prevent it. Even worse is that it took at least 3 months before these employees were fired.
And as if those weren't enough, the same employees helped the girl implant a birth control device several months before. Who knew about that, and why didn't it come out until now that this was done?There are so many questions surrounding this incident that American Life League asked the Commonwealth Attorney to step in and conduct an investigation.
Given that this looks so much like a cover-up, we wonder if this has happened before at this or even other Catholic Charities.
My friends, I am sending you some news clips on this and ask you to cover this on your blogs:
Washington Post: Antiabortion Group Urges Inquiry
http://www.washingtonpost.com /wp-dyn/content/article/2008 /07/07/AR2008070702319.html ?hpid=sec-religion
The Washington Times: Prosecution of Charity Ruled Out in Abortion Case
http://www.washingtontimes.com /news/2008/jul/08/prosecution -of-charity-ruled-out-in-case -of-teens-/
CBS-6 Richmond (Top Nightly News Story 7/7/08 – the story is the video to the right labeled "Should Charges be Filed in Abortion Case?" )
www.wtvr.com
If people like this are not exposed, then more and more pro-life champions like Catholic Charities will be infiltrated by the Culture of Death ... rotting them from the inside out .. until there is no one left. We have to expose this monstrosity to ensure that this never happens again.
Thank you all for everything you do for the babies!
--Michael Hichborn
American Life League
----end of letter----
I'd just like to add, please don't stop giving to Catholic Charities because of a few bad apples as the saying goes. Catholic Charities does amazing work helping people and if they suffer from lack of donations because of this scandalous action by a few, then thousands of needy and suffering people will suffer even more. Please pray for all involved, that this never happens again.
News reports make it seem like Commonwealth Catholic Charities in Virginia sanctioned this abortion and enabled it to take place. In point of fact this was a rogue operation conducted by 4 employees of CCC who acted completely under the radar. They knowingly violated explicit Church, diocese, and CC policy,
ReplyDeleteabused the use of their professional credentials, deceived the medical authorities by proffering falsified paperwork,
and finally concealed their illicit action from their superiors until the deed was discovered, at which point they provided misleading information to allow the abortion to go on unhindered.
These people were operating on their own agenda and when they got caught they got fired.
To say that the Bishop and Catholic Charities in Virginia
were complicit in this matter is
utterly wrong and at variance with the facts. This whole thing has been a sanctimonious shark feed for the press and the only lasting legacy is that doubt has been cast on an otherwise superb organization. Donations to CC will surely drop - nationwide - and those who will suffer are those who depend on its programs the most. The devil must certainly be smiling on this one: he not only got a human life, he's set a process in motion to ruin the lives of many others up the line.
G. Brittle,
Richmond, VA.
8 Jul 2008
If you are Gerald Brittle, who sits on the board of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, you should be able to better explain what happened here. Even if the bad actors in this case provided the "bad information" that the abortion scheduled the next day "could not be stopped", who on earth with a brain in their head would believe that? Don't you have at least five lawyers on your board that someone could check with? Please advise the bishop to explain what actually happened before it is all leaked out slowly and painfully.
ReplyDeleteIt has been reported that the employees were not fired until March. Why? Mr. Brittle says "The only lasting legacy is that doubt has been cast on an otherwise superb organization." How about the other lasting legacy - a dead child and wounded mother? Lets focus on the drop in donations though - that's the real tragedy, right?
ReplyDelete