Chris Hartmann, director of the Fairness Campaign, has a great op-ed piece in today's CJ about WIT and how the local Catholic archdiocese has cut off its funding grant to WIT because WIT refused to disassociate itself from certain other groups working for social justice:

Chris Hartmann's Op-Ed:

As Meg points out, WIT's office is at the Kling Center, just a couple of blocks away from the BH (and where the Second Street Neighborhood Association meets). They are a neighbor and ally in more ways than one. We should do what we can to help.

John

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Archdiocese of Louisville scrutinizes anti-poverty group

By Peter Smith • psmith@courier-journal.com • January 26, 2010

The Archdiocese of Louisville said it is reviewing a women's anti-poverty group that has received grants from a Catholic agency for the past five years after hearing concerns that the group may have been acting in conflict with Catholic social teaching.

The organization, Women in Transition, and the archdiocese say they are discussing the concerns, which the archdiocese declined to specify.

The group has been awarded grants for the past five years from the national anti-poverty and social-justice arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The group was awarded a $25,000 grant for the fiscal year ending in July 2010, although it has not yet received the check, according to Executive Director Khalilah Collins.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz approved the latest grant under guidelines requiring local bishops' approval of such funds.

After the current year's grant was announced, “some concerns were raised about activities of Women in Transition that might be in conflict with Catholic social teaching,” archdiocesan spokeswoman Cecelia Price said in a statement.

Such concerns “cannot be reduced to a single issue,” she said.

But she said they relate to a requirement that all grant recipients sign a statement agreeing not to work in conflict with such social teachings as the church's belief in the “sanctity of human life from conception to natural death,” which includes opposition to abortion, as well as stances in favor of advocacy for the poor, immigrants, racial equality and nonviolent conflict resolution.

Collins said the questions surround Women in Transition's cooperation with “organizations that may have a pro-choice agenda, even though our work together is not around those things.”

Collins and Price said Women in Transition have been in dialogue over the past several weeks with the local chapter of Catholic Charities, which administers the grant.

Women in Transition is a grass-roots group “that organizes low-income people around economic human rights,” Collins said.

She said that although in some years the Catholic Charities grant has been the main portion of its budget, the group has been able to operate through other grant funds while it awaits the decision on this year's grant.

Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469.

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