WASHINGTON, D.C., NOV. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The outgoing chairman of the U.S. bishops’ anti-poverty program says the group has made a renewal, and is resolved to ensure that funds are not used to support anything in conflict with Catholic moral teaching.
Bishop Roger Morin of Biloxi, Mississippi, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, made this affirmation Monday at the bishops’ fall assembly, where he presented progress over the last year.
He said the «review and renewal of CCHD» does three basic things: «it reaffirms CCHD’s Catholic foundations and priority for the poor; it responds to concerns about some CCHD funding practices; and it makes ’10 commitments’ to strengthen CCHD as a faithful and effective expression of Catholic social and moral teaching and the Gospel.»
Bishop Morin added that the subcommittee will continue efforts along the same lines, in response to suggestions from regional meetings. He outlined four upcoming priorities, including «to better ensure that CCHD funds will not be used to support any activity which conflicts with fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching, particularly human life and dignity, marriage and family, and a priority for the ‘least of these.'»
In this context, the subcommittee already approved a more specific grant agreement that «clearly defines CCHD’s Gospel Mission and Catholic principles, outlining what CCHD can fund and what it cannot.»
As well, he said, Capuchin Father Dan Mindling, moral theology professor at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, will be the theological advisor to the CCHD.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California, was named the new chairman of the subcommittee.
«My committee will continue to monitor the progress for the implementations of the new guidelines,» he said. «God’s people are the Church’s best resource for the mission of New Evangelization. CCHD will continue to invest in them so that they can be the protagonists of the Gospel, announcing the joy and hope of the Lord Jesus to a weary world.”
