Since 2015, Michael Hichborn, founder and president of the Lepanto Institute — a nonprofit “dedicated to the defense of the Catholic Church against assaults from without as well as from within” — has produced reports on CCHD through the institute “exposing dozens of grantees that are promoting abortion, birth control, homosexuality and Marxism.”
Lepanto has seen its yearly revenue significantly rise in recent years, from $99,361 in 2017 to $327,244 in fiscal year 2022, according to publicly available tax documents.
Hichborn was the first signatory of a May 31 open letter “asking the bishops to close down the CCHD once and for all.” Other signatories included John Yep, CEO of Catholic for Catholics, which hosted a March prayer event for former President Donald Trump; Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine; and John-Henry Westen, co-founder of LifeSiteNews.
In late May, program officials told CCHD grantees that the program had decided to delay all decisions about pending grants. One email cited “significantly reduced numbers” for the yearly national collection that funds the program.
“This is not a decision made lightly. CCHD is taking this moment of pause as an opportunity to re-evaluate and renew the mission and resources of CCHD to strengthen this work for another 50 years,” the email told grantees.
A press release before the meetings also emphasized a decline in donations to the program and the bishops’ focus on the program’s future.
“The bishops will spend time prayerfully discussing the best way to adapt to the post-pandemic needs and resources, while at the same time continuing a steadfast commitment to helping the poor and disenfranchised emerge from the cycle of poverty,” the release said.
The National Catholic Reporter has reported that CCHD is among multiple collections that have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Activists, including a peace group and grant recipients, have made public shows of support for the program.
Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace group, organized a protest outside the bishops’ meeting in support of CCHD.
Pax Christi USA organized a prayerful demonstration outside the spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Louisville, Ky., June 12, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Pax Christi USA)
The Catholic peace group has a history of linking poverty and peace issues. Pax Christi USA organized a campaign beginning in October 2023 to contact at least 99 bishops to ask them to sign on to a letter advocating that the U.S. cut military spending and instead invest in ending poverty. Since then, 20 bishops, including two cardinals, have signed on.
The group also joined a bevy of organizations and groups of women religious who signed on to a letter praising CCHD’s work as “a beacon of hope for impoverished and vulnerable communities across the United States” and calling on the bishops “to guide us through these perilous times.”
Ana Garcia-Ashley, the executive director of the Gamaliel Network, which has been a target for conservative critics, sees the attacks on CCHD as “uninformed.”
Garcia-Ashley, who described herself as a “fourth-generation Catholic, born in the Dominican Republic,” said that, after moving to the U.S., she “grew up believing that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development was an expression of my faith.” Garcia-Ashley said she has been doing faith-based organizing funded by CCHD since the 1980s.
The CCHD’s decision to pause grant approvals has affected programs that work with people experiencing homelessness, immigrant families, children with disabilities and other marginalized people, Garcia-Ashley said.
