The Catholic Church & Faith-Based Organizations – Transcript

00:00thank you very for coming out this is doctor wood who presented this information to us to the CCHD committee two meetings ago and I thought that the information was of addresses one of the the key concerns that many bishops have

00:22about the work that CCHD does and and and the research also leave provides some strong data as we explore the impact of the Catholic Church being involved in society and the issues that

00:47we oftentimes get caught up in terms of a theological or ethical questions of moral cooperation and how to participate and how not to participate that here I think that we are have a treasure trove of information that does help us understand from a sociological framework

01:09some of those issues so I do believe that this is a very timely topic and and I do very much appreciate rich woods come coming and being making this presentation available to more the bishops but to provide perhaps just a little bit more of a an introduction to what we are going to do I am going to

01:35ask Ralph McLeod to say a few more words of introduction and it's become behalf of the Catholic campaign for human development don't rough Thank You bishop and before I formal introduction of dr. wood I would like to I've been asked to say just a couple of words regarding the progress of the review and renew for the Catholic

02:00campaign for human development as you will recall the bishops who oversee CCHD undertook a serious and very substantial review of their work there were some concerns as you might remember as well as the occasion of the 40th anniversary it seemed appropriate to have a very exhaustive review of operations activities and procedures of CCHD there was a desire to review and strengthen CC HDS policies practices and tools and to

02:28build on those principles in a way that was respective of Catholic teaching and to highlight some of the strengths of the Catholic campaign for human development there was a class of see how CCHD might be more faithful more effective and more accountable as it carries out a very unique mission in the Catholic Church a Bishop's workgroup was appointed and worked diligently and met frequently consulting with moral theologians and experts in grant making

02:54and charitable giving the CCHD workgroup communicated very often with bishops on several occasions reporting on those directions of the review and seeking their input and suggestions meetings were held with the word group meet in regional meetings USCCB staffs special emphasis was has been meeting with the USCCB communications department pro-life and national collections departments bishops were asked for input to help

03:21guide these deliberations and regional meetings prior to the General Assembly I would just share with you some of the progress that we've made thus far and to summarize it's not enough effort I think it probably would work out best to put it in three different categories the first to reaffirm CCHD is Catholic foundations and it's priority for the poor how we might best increase Catholic participation so CCHD staff has sought

03:48out non-traditional partners to work with and where possible eliminate past barriers that are prohibited that sort of work for example removal of language that prohibited funding includes your bodies in cluding including voluntary pouring calculations towards poverty numbers etc for the purpose of the accessing participation and decision-making by most of those who are affected by poverty CCHD now considers priests and

04:13religious who primarily serve low-income people parishes and communities to live in solidarity with their people in these communities as contributing to the goal and the calculations these efforts have yielded again non-traditional partnerships with state Catholic conferences Catholic Charities agencies across the country st. Vincent DePaul and increased funding groups sensitive sensitivity to working with Catholic parishes and partners the strategic

04:40national grants have called for a new way of funding anti-poverty efforts on a broader geographic scale the direct involvement of Catholic leaders and clergy parishes and other institutions is considered a significant positive factor and advantage in the review of applications of CCHD funding CCHD organizations now receive priority priority consideration as long as they effectively carry out these phd's

05:06mission and clearly reflect CCHD foundations second CCHD responding to the claims about some of their policies CCHD worked with the USCCB general council office to revise and refine the CCHD grant agreements for greater clarity consistency and effectiveness within the grant agreement itself grantees are now asked to not to agree not to actively participate in

05:32activities that violate Catholic social teaching we put similar language in pre applications applications on a very explicit of site visits and conversations with prospective grantees we've established an ongoing consultant relationship with morale theologian father J Daniel meddling who brings his expertise on own cooperation and advises the CCHD subcommittee national staff

05:57diocese and bishops and CCHD diocesan directors on the appropriate application of traditional moral principles of cooperation and collaboration and third exploring ways we might be able to share the good news CCHD finally we were asked to look at an improved ways we might be able to share that good news so we're doing that in several ways we continually work with the national collections office and that helps us in the promotion of the

06:23Catholic campaign for human development additionally CCHD created a new position who focuses on promoting safeguarding and monitoring the Catholic identity of CCHD and helps with the compliance with CCHD requirements the position was funded with by reallocating existing resources within the u.s. ccp being and the person the positions were filled by two different people

06:50gloria luna mormon initially and now dylan corbett staff disposition and continue to promote CCHD through media social media and embedded in the conference's communication strategy and increase positive web presence is obvious for CCHD funded groups dioceses and other positive activities are featured on several websites and throughout the web associated with CCHD funding activities after a several year

07:16absence CCHD has restored the practice of regular and systematic training and skill development for CCHD diocesan directors this formation and training now focuses on how CCHD directors can better assist bishops appropriately encourage applicants evaluate grant applications and proposals understand and communicate CC HDS mission and moral foundations and monitor compliance with c CH DS requirements and grant

07:42agreements this own growing training will include CCHD submission and foundations as well as basic ethical discernment since this reinstatement CCHD has trained approximately $75 and directors finally there was a desire to express solidarity with the poor over the last few months justice peace and human development is shared reflections on different aspects of the present

08:08economic crisis they are meant to be a sign of our union with those who are suffering a strong message of hope and a challenge for all of us to look for solutions and assistance while this is not an exhaustive list of the progress the progress continues and unless say the CCHD is now better understood by prospective grantees and is recovering the respect of many Catholics it remains one of the most popular collections in the United States

08:35the Catholic Church and that is core addresses poverty in a very unique and essential way we'll continue to work on the progress and continue to update us as the progress continues with that is my pleasure to introduce to you the executive director of justice peace and human development dr. Jonathan Reyes and we'll get to the real show very quickly but I just want to set the stage for

09:02Richard who's become a good friend over some time and some conversations about these issues that I've deeply enjoyed just in terms of context when I've only been in a job for less than a year so when I walked in I came into a situation which CCHD was under a certain amount of scrutiny in the middle of the renewal process continue to deal with a certain kind of criticism and it's the good news

09:28that what Ralph summarized there very briefly is only the tip of the iceberg about how far CCHD has gone in its review and renewal process having said that there's two things that stick in our mind as we talk about this a justice peace and human development one is there's further to go it's further to go there's what we need to do but here's the second and I think this is the key and this is where Richards research is

09:53beginning to open doors in so many ways for us the second point is this the good news isn't just continuing to play defense we've been playing defense for a while we've been explaining certain things we do and I'm sure that will continue to be a piece of what we do but there's a sense in the department there's a sense in relevant in his leadership that it's time to start talking about CCHD for precisely the way in which it's

10:19responding to the challenges of the modern age founded 40 years ago it was responding to particular challenges but today and I think we see this in the tremendous response to Pope Francis which is a bit cliched to talk about but nonetheless it's very real that the kinds of things CCHD partners to do which is going into communities ending the great poverty's

10:45of isolation which is benedict and mother teresa and more recently francis have called the great cause of poverty isolation one of the great root causes to go and build community to help communities come into their own is actually the right response today it was the right response forty years ago it's the right response today for slightly different ways because the modern inner city is a different dynamic but nonetheless it's where we ought to be and we're convinced

11:13to that so we think that the conversation now buoyed with excellent scholarship with continued theological reflection from the great advisors we have and under the inspiration of Pope Francis that we can start telling the good news in a way that's more than just giving commercials it's actually showing the ways in which CCHD is precisely the right response to a poverty rooted in isolation to the impact of globalization

11:40to the breakdown of community and fundamental human relationships and so the good news is I think there's a gem here there's a gem here there's something we really want to say so a while back Richard was asked to engage through a partnership but began engaging in some research and the piece are going to see today basically ask this question Richard is not the kind of scholar who does commercials so some people will ask

12:08a scholar to go do research that justifies their existence Richards a different kind of scholar one might say an honest one and he said look I tell you what I'll do I'll look at the ways in which faith-based organizing intersects with the Catholic faith I'll look at the ways in which the Catholic faith has impacted faith-based organizing now I'm gonna look at the ways in which organizing and faith based activities impacted the Catholic Church and I'll tell you what I find and this can be a baseline of grounding some

12:36empirical data from which to do some further thinking about this the other thing and so he's done that and I think one of the things that emerges from this I hope you see is that the Catholic Church has a right to be heard in the modern world in a time when the Catholic Church's voice is often combated and often seen as somewhat irrelevant a lot of the work we do is actually earning us the right to be heard and I think we should know that the only other thing I'll say about