Catholic League claims Catholic political groups are financed by George Soros

Oct 20, 2008 / 20:19 pm

The Catholic League’s president Bill Donohue has come out swinging at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United for having ties to the left-wing financier George Soros.

 

Donohue charges that Soros’ liberal credentials couldn’t be more clear, citing a 2005 campaign by Soros-financed Moveon.org to convince Americans that they should back Democrats efforts to filibuster President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees to the Supreme Court.

 

At the time of Moveon.org's effort Donohue described it in a statement as: “a picture of a smiling Pope Benedict XVI holding a gavel outside the U.S. Supreme Court, along with the following inscription: ‘God Already Has a Job…He does not need one on the Supreme Court’.”  

 

Although the incident occurred in 2005, Donohue now says that Soros is financing two organizations that have close ties to the Democrat Party and are “apologists for abortion rights.”

 

According to The Catholic Key, Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, the Chair of the Board of Directors for Catholics in Alliance is the wife of former Democratic National Committee finance chair, Smith Bagley. “Ambassador Bagley has herself given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the DNC, as well as to numerous stridently pro-choice Democratic candidates including, Barack Obama, Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Claire McCaskill, Charles Schumer and The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund," The Catholic Key reported.

Catholics United also has ties to the Democrat Party, according to the group's web site. Catholics United Director of Organizing, James Salt, "oversaw the Kansas Democratic Party's faith outreach efforts, including messaging work for Governor Sebelius and development of faith-based messaging resources," the site says. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is currently in hot water with Archbishop Joseph Naumann for her close ties to abortionist George Tiller and her support for abortion.

 

Donohue alleges that these groups also have monetary links to George Soros. “In 2006, Soros’ Open Society Institute gave Catholics in Alliance $100,000 (double the amount he gave in 2005), and in the same year Catholics in Alliance listed Catholics United on its 990 (line 80b) as an organization with which it has a formal relationship,” Donohue asserts in documentation the Catholic League provided to CNA.

 

As further proof of a link, the Catholic League president cites a May 20, 2006 Washington Post article in which John Podesta, who runs the Soros-funded organization, Center for American Progress, “admits that he works closely with Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United.”

 

In an email to CNA on Monday, Catholics United president Chris Korzen denied any links to Soros. “Catholics United has no connection with Mr. Soros.  We have taken money from neither him nor OSI,” he said.

 

The Catholic League’s Director of Communications, Susan Fani, responded to Korzen's denial by telling CNA that the League stands by its statement and that the evidence is well documented.

For his part, Donohue believes that George Soros, who is Jewish, is driven to fund Catholic groups because he has an agenda to normalize Catholic support for abortion.

 

“The reason Soros funds the Catholic Left is the same reason he lavishly funds Catholics for Choice, the pro-abortion group that has twice been condemned as a fraud by Catholic bishops: they all service his agenda, namely, to make support for abortion rights a respectable Catholic position,” Donohue stated on Monday. 

 

As reported by CNA last Friday, Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United both came under fire from Archbishop Chaput of Denver, who said that the groups are doing a “disservice” to the Catholic Church.