If their website is any indication (it doesn’t appear to have been updated in about seven months), the group “Catholic Advocate” needs money. So I wasn’t too surprised when I received a copy of their latest direct mail fundraising appeal, produced in the form of an “Emergency Pro-Life Petition to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”
You might recall the group’s previous fundraising effort. It included a similar petition and a letter mimicking official Congressional correspondence from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). In that letter, Brownback, in a breach of Congressional protocol, questioned whether six of his Democratic colleagues and the Speaker of the House are genuine Catholics. “Real Catholics need a new voice — not the likes of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi who have campaigned as Catholics while voting to undermine the values that we hold most dear,” said that letter.
Brownback’s office ultimately distanced itself from that appeal.
Now, “Catholic Advocate” wants your money so it can “stop the pro-abortion movement’s deliberate attack to silence the Catholic Church and its teaching against abortion” and “to help you generate a massive tide of grassroots support urging the US Bishops to take a stand.”
Specifically, the petition calls on the bishops to eliminate the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (the bishops’ major anti-poverty program), revise their statement on “Faithful Citizenship,” and warn pro-choice Catholic politicians that they are not eligible to receive communion.
“Catholic Advocate” is a program of the Washington-based Morley Publishing Group, which is headed by one-time Republican Party political operative Deal Hudson.
