Arm in Arm With the Democrat Party Platform

It has been a while since this blog said anything about VOICE, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Engagement.  This is a link to their membership page.  Please, take a minute to ponder this diverse coalition of people dedicated to forcing their political agenda down other people’s throats through intimidation. 

VOICE: This is what community organizing money buys!

VOICE Celebrates State Victories

Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) is all about liberalism. They don't do charity, they are a liberal lobby group, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation founded by Saul Alinsky. Consider that as you read their self-congratulatory message. They are all about manipulating "We the People" so they support the liberal agenda. At one VOICE meeting some clueless soul asked about fighting abortion and the group booed. Yup! They defend the "little guy" but not the littlest. Babies in the womb can't vote after all. And VOICE is all about getting out the vote for liberal causes.

Diocese of Arlington, This Means You!

Catholics should reassess parish contributions to socialists

Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and was begun, I'm sad to say, by two priests, Fr. Tuck Grinnell and Fr. Gerry Creedon. 

Here are the Catholic Churches in Arlington affiliated with VOICE:

Holy Family 

Sacred Heart  (Prince William Cty.)

St. Francis of Assisi

Good Shepherd 

Nativity of the Lord

St. John Neumann

St. Joseph 

Our Lady Queen of Peace

St. Charles Borromeo

Most of these parishes are well known for dissent and liberalism. It's interesting that St. Anthony disappeared from the list after Fr. Tuck Grinnell moved to St. Charles Borromeo (where Fr. Gerry Creedon was a former pastor). Fr. Marcus Pollard is the current pastor and we suspect he made the decision to disaffiliate from VOICE. Thank you, Father.

Parishioners at the churches named above would be well advised to ask their pastors to get out of VOICE. They should also ask for financial accountability. How much money has been funneled into VOICE from their parishes over the years?

There are many legitimate charitable organizations that do NOT promote activities that conflict with Catholic teaching. VOICE and the IAF are NOT one of them!

Archdiocese of Chicago Retracts CCHD Grants to Pro-Life Groups

Among the pro-life groups affected by the indian-giving is the Pro-Life Action League, Joe Scheidler's group. There was hope of reform in Chicago, but that has proven an empty promise. The greatest cause of poverty is the breakdown of the family. To claim that pro-life groups are not "anti-poverty" (most of their clients are poor) is ridiculous! But hey, we can't take one cent away from the liberal groups that helped to elect Obama and support liberalism.

One more reason to nix CCHD. Their idea of fighting poverty is to give in-state tuition to illegal aliens like one of our local CCHD-funded groups, VOICE.

The Fort Hood Shooting and the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church

Information is coming out about the Fort Hood shooter that links him to a mosque in the VOICE network here in the Arlington Diocese. According to articles linked below, Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque at the same time as two of the 9-11 hijackers. All of them were exposed to the teachings of Anwar al-Aulaqi who was the imam at the mosque in 2001 and 2002 and has strong links to Al Quaeda. The mosque has a history of terrorist connections.

Hasan Linked to Sept. 11 Hijackers

Imam of Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia helped hijackers and Al Qaeda

Alleged shooter tied to mosque of 9/11 hijackers

Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center

The Industrial Areas Foundation in the Diocese of Arlington

I recently posted an open letter to the priests of Arlington on the Les Femmes main website about the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) affiliate, VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement). Eleven parishes in the VOICE network funneled over $100,000 to the IAF in 2009. The open letter urges the priests of Arlington to do two things. Ask Bishop Paul Loverde for an audit of the parishes involved and to join the boycott of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which awarded VOICE a $40,000 grant in 2009. These community organizing networks are poison. They marry "progressive" pro-abortion, pro-sodomy churches with Catholic parishes to work together for liberal causes. Their agenda is more and bigger government to solve problems. If the money diverted to the IAF and the thousands of man-hours spent lobbying for socialism went, instead, into establishing a free dental clinic and a volunteer legal services office that would be REAL help for the poor. Visit the Les Femmes website and click on E-letters next to the flashing icon.

Community organizing groups are forming in dioceses all over the country. Find out if there's one growing in your diocese. It may be affiliated with Gamaliel Foundation, IAF, PICO (People Improving Communities), DART (Direct Action and Research Training), etc.

We Have a Short Window to Expose the CCHD; Let's Do It!

I sent this notice out to my e-mail list yesterday and it's worth reminding folks again. I hope you'll visit the video at YouTube, boost the views, and pass it on to your friends. Catholics don't let Catholics support CCHD. Many of the groups they support work directly against Catholic goals. Would you buy a white hood for a member of the KKK? If not, then stop letting CCHD fund networks that include pro-abortion, pro-homosexual groups that hate the Church and her teaching. It just doesn't make sense!

October 21st

Dear Friends:

The Catholic Media Collection (CMC) has posted a two-minute video on YouTube warning Catholics about supporting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. This scandalous collection has poured millions of dollars into liberal groups over the past thirty years while telling people in the pews the money goes to help "the poor." Some of it does. So what? Would you drink a glass of water that was one third sewage? The CCHD collection verges on fraud!

The only reason CCHD stopped funding ACORN was because of embezzlement by one of the board members. The bishops didn't address ACORN's horrible agenda which has been all too obvious in recent months. The pretense that ending funding to ACORN has eliminated the scandal is ridiculous when you consider that many of the other community organizing groups receiving money operate exactly like ACORN does and are engageing in the same type of liberal lobbying.

Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) receives 15-17% of the collections. Its affiliates bus people to meetings to pressure politiicans to make the "right" liberal choice. Fr. Tuck Grinnell here in the Arlington Diocese provided 5 or 6 buses for one IAF VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement). meeting. One of their big issues is immigration reform. While their website talks about improving processing time for "legal" immigrants, Fr. Grinnell is using VOICE to advocate for "comprehensive immigration reform" and sponsored a forum featuring pro-abortion Catholic Jim Moran who favors blanket amnesty for illegal aliens as well as in-state tuition and other goodies. VOICE received $40,000 in the 2009 CCHD grant cycle.

Please pass this video on to your Catholic friends. If they want more information send them to the CMC website which has numerous articles on CCHD. They can also visit SperoForum and google Stephanie Block. This disgrace has gone on long enough. Many parishes are running in the red. Why are millions being funneled to secular groups that often have an agenda diametrically opposed to the Church?

Mary Ann Kreitzer

"The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood; the second, not to fear to speak the truth."
Pope Leo XIII

Is Fr. Tuck Grinnell Endorsing Congressman Jim Moran?

On Monday evening St. Anthony's in Falls Church, VA along with other liberal organizations (some with aims directly opposed to Catholic teaching), sposored pro-abortion Catholic Congressman Jim Moran at a forum to discuss "immigration reform." St. Anthony's participation could only happen with the direct support of pastor/community organizer Fr. Tuck Grinnell. Fr. Tuck is a lead organizer in Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE), an affiliate of the Alinsky group, Industrial Areas Foundation.

"Immigration reform" is codespeak for amnesty for illegals. Moran not only favors amnesty, but in-state tuition, welfare benefits, and other taxpayer-funded services for the invaders. This is tantamount to someone entering your house uninvited, sitting down at your table, and demanding your dinner and a bed. It isn't just a border problem. About 40% of illegals come through a port of entry and then violate the terms of their admission.

Michael Cutler of the Center for Immigration Studies was a thirty-year veteran of INS, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. His experience makes him an authority on the impact of illegal immigration on the United States. I recently heard him on a radio talk show bringing up a number of serious problems, some of which I had never considered:

---Economic Impact: Many illegals come for one reason - to make money and send it home. This results in a serious financial drain on the American economy.
---Health Impact: Illegals tend to congregate and, because many men come without their families, prostitution increases. Cutler described how health clinics pop up in cities with large illegal populations to service the prostitutes. (And no doubt provide abortions.) Often they also bring diseases like TB.
---Crime: Gang activity is common among the illegal populations. They prey on everyone. In my own state of Virginia, gang violence has been directly linked to illegals.
---National Security: The 9/11 hijackers were illegal aliens. Our failure to control our borders and monitor those who overstay makes us more vulnerable to terrorist activity.

Do the research. Compassion is fine. We all want to welcome the stranger who comes in legally. But illegals prey on both natural born citizens and those who waited in line to enter legally. It is insane to reward their actions.

Fr. Gerry Creedon Trivializes Murder of the Innocent as a "Narrow Beginning of Life Question"

UPDATE NOVEMBER 17, 2017: FR. CREEDON DIED YESTERDAY. PLEASE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF HIS SOUL. YOU CAN READ HIS OBITUARY IN THE ARLINGTON CATHOLIC HERALD.

Fr. Gerry Creedon is the pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, VA. He is a champion of liberal politics, a personal friend of the Kennedy's who participated in the scandalous near-canonization funeral of Ted Kennedy in Boston last month. He also attended the graveside service where Cardinal McCarrick read the pro-forma Vatican letter, implying the pope's approval of the man and his scandalous life.

Fr. Creedon is a leader in the recently formed Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Involvement (VOICE), an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) lobbying for more government funding for just about everything.

Fr. Creedon could be the poster boy for what's wrong in the American Church today. It isn't the priest in his role as alter christus that matters, but his important job of political organizer working for liberation. He doesn't organize his parish with Eucharistic processions and holy hours, urging parishioners to perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. He holds mass meetings to organize lobby groups to pressure the government to do "charity."

The fact that Fr. Creedon treats the vulnerable and weakest members of society with indifference, almost contempt, is not surprising. The babies appear to be invisible, to him. Abortion is just one of those "neuraligic questions" that "can cause a lot of polarization" as he puts it. I wonder if Jesus would agree. Somehow I doubt it in view of his statement that, "Whatever you do to the least ones, you do to me."

See below the transcript of Father's final comments. Would you want to be part of his "consensus" and join his lobby group seeking "equality and justice for all Americans".... except the smallest and most vulnerable? Fr. Creedon's message reminds me of the community organizers of the French Revolution whose motto was "liberty, equality, fraternity." It didn't apply to everyone, of course, as the guillotine's voracious appetite illustrated.

While Fr. Creedon spouts the nonsense below, millions of babies, victims of the "neuralgic question" of abortion continue to die, making his lip service to "equality and justice" so much liberal blather.

"I think we'll get a consensus if we go toward the idea of equality and justice which are ideals for all Americans and ideals that all the faith communities can propose rather than dealing with the narrow end of life or, for that matter, begining of life questions."

A victim of Father's "narrow beginning of life question:"

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the lives of the unborn babies I have spiritually adopted who are in danger of abortion. Amen. - Prayer of Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Fr. Mitch Pacwa and Thoughts on Alinsky Organizing

Fr. Mitch had firsthand experience with Alinsky organizing in Chicago and his story illustrates one of the things that went so wrong with the Jesuits who, on the whole, have gone over to the dark side of abandoning God for the world. Just look at their schools!

Catholics need to understand that the disaster in the Church in modern times is rooted at least to some to degree in community organizing, especially in the Church. The lead organizer, as Alinsky pointed out in the forward to Rules for Radicals is the original rebel, Lucifer. The organizers smell of Luciferian sulphur as they rush about promoting their agenda which is all about accruing power to themselves using the people as stooges. Consider the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. Both put tyrannical and murderous governments in place by using the discontent of the people as the engine to overthrow the monarchies. The poor ended up worse off than ever, but the improvement of their lot was never the primary purpose. Power to the people is the organizer's pretense, but it's really about power to the organizers.

Look at the president, our organizer-in-chief. Is there any evidence that he really wants to hear the people? No. He shoved through his massive spending bill filled with millions of dollars of earmarks (for the unions, the banks, ACORN, etc.) under the pretense it was a "stimulus." He took over the auto industry against the objections of hundreds of economists and millions of Americans, claiming to have broad support. Now he's trying to take over health care with a bill which includes a massive invasion of people's privacy, giving government the right to have access to our bank accounts, medical information, etc. And the attempt to control town hall meetings are classic Alinsky. Fortunately, Americans, themselves are showing some of the revolutionary spirit of 1776 and aren't standing for it.

That the American Church enables this (think Catholic Campaign for Human Development - CCHD, Industrial Areas Foundation - IAF, PICO, GAMALIEL, Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, etc.) is part of this sham is horrifying.

Here's what Fr. Pacwa says about his experience in Chicago:

I never forgot the lessons I learned about Alinsky's community organizing. The key to starting an organization was to find an issue that united the people. The issue should be small enough to win a victory, but large enough to matter to the folks. Second, after choosing the issue we had to identify an enemy the community could recognize as the personification of the issue. Usually this was some politician or businessman. Third, an action had to be designed by which the people could attack the enemy and force his or her hand on the issue, thereby giving the folks a victory. That would motivate them to take on bigger and more important issues, while the leaders among the people could emerge. This was a means of bringing power to the people.

In my own diocese VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) is following the blueprint described by Fr. Pacwa. They have identified a few popular issues and are pursuing them with single-minded intensity. They have regular "actions" and make it clear that "the enemy" are politicians who don't support their agenda. At present their "voice" is low key, but one can expect that to change if politicians don't fall in line. One local politician is may already be a target since he won't promise to do what they want. According to The Washington Post:

Corey A. Stewart (R), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, rejected the group's demand that the county spend upward of $20 million on building and preserving affordable housing.

"I'm not going to commit to that -- absolutely not," said Stewart.... "Instead of focusing on the funding, we have to focus on what the problem is -- which is a surplus of housing on the market" from the epidemic of home foreclosures that have hit Prince William, he said.

In the same article, Fr. Tuck Grinnell, pastor of St. Anthony's in Falls Church made it clear the group will target those who don't jump on the VOICE bandwagon. "From the elected officials' side, they're going to see the birth of an interfaith organization as a huge ally for them if they do the right thing or a huge obstacle if they do the wrong thing."

Read all you can about Alinsky organizing so you'll know when you're being manipulated. Their tactics are like Madison Avenue's. Once you recognize them, they have much less effect. The more of us who are educated and resistent, the more we can be the truth vaccine for our culture.