What Covenant House doesn't talk about in its fundraising pitch

Agent 3 reports that  Covenant House Toronto has recently flighted a massive repeat of its successful fundraising video ad, which opens with a long shot of a poor waif, sitting, cold and hungry, in the doorway of a downtown building, as a strange man (possibly a "chicken hawk") approaches.

"Amazing Grace" (of course) plays softly as we go to the voiceover which suggests Covenant House saves little white "barely legals" like this from a fate worse than death. The ad would melt the heart of a Scrooge, which is the intention of course.

If that one doesn't get to you, perhaps you'll be persuaded by this snippet scraped from the Covenant House Toronto website.

Even Ayn Rand couldn't refuse to help a sweet little girl like that "find a path forward", dontcha think? Sadly, young women like her are in the minority [the visible minority? Ed.] of Covenant House's "clients". The majority, in Toronto at least, include:

* "international students", getting into Canada by the back door -- a student visa to study at the likes of the Singh School of Truck Driving,

* drug addicts who won't get treatment, seeking only need a place to crash, and

* bogus refugees, asylum-seekers and other illegal immigrants (read: benefits shoppers) avoiding deportation, not that deportation is just as much a threat in Canada as it is in the US of A.

Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, the Director of Advocacy & Communications for YWCA Toronto, which undertakes similar work, told an interviewer that for those who are new to Canada, students included, housing challenges can sometimes be magnified. "I do think that refugees and people with precarious immigration status and even folks who have not yet obtained their refugee status, deal with a lot of compounding challenges and vulnerabilities because they can't oftentimes access even the minimum level of support that our society provides. And it's not uncommon for them to end up in the shelter system."

For a more accurate picture of the kind of marginalized yoofs the charity protects from the realities of life, check out "Rising above hate to build a better life", on their website. I suppose that it would be churlish to suggest that poor Nathaniel would have been better of had he stayed in his own country and straightened out his personal life. But don't let them guilt you into feeling like an ogre for suggesting that "how he is" is his own choice, and it's somehow our duty to shield him from the consequences.

On its website and in its literature, Covenant House Toronto says "We are part of an international network. Covenant House is an internationally recognized child care agency with 'houses' in 34 cities in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver), the U.S. and Latin America."

For some reason, Covenant House downplays the fact that it is, in theory at least, a Catholic charity. The mother organization was founded by Franciscan Father Bruce Ritter to provide shelters for homeless teenagers. Father Ritter was forced to resign a few years ago over accusations of financial and sexual misdeeds. (Source: Toronto Star, 3/3/16) I beg your forgiveness for wondering in the, errr, misdeeds involved Lolitas like the one in the TV ad.

Well, no matter. Covenent House Toronto has been a high-profile Catholic charity in Toronto for the past several years now. Although their "Impact Report 2023" (a model of wokeness and DEI) says they receive only 2% of their funding from Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of Toronto's annual ShareLife appeal, the executive director of ShareLife Toronto, told an interviewer that $1 million a year comes from Toronto’s ShareLife, and $1.5 million dollars comes from Covenant House, New York. The balance of the over $3 million yearly budget is supplied from provincial and municipal funds.

Funny, then, that according to an article in The Interim, Covenant House Toronto -- "set up to help street kids rehabilitate themselves" -- hands out condoms and does abortion referrals! While condom distribution is a matter of public record and is sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Toronto, abortion referrals are made quietly and depend on which worker a girl seeks at the House. Both practices have been publicly justified by several Canadian theologians on the grounds of "the lesser of two evils."

A director of ShareLife Toronto defended the practice of giving out condoms to high-risk street kids. He described many of them as homosexuals who were possibly AIDS carriers, and claimed this provided some measure of protection from them. He said the policy had been approved by the Catholic board of Covenant House after extensive consultations with moral theologians whom he would not name. 

I am not telling you not to respond to Covenant House's insistent appeals. I believe in "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Unlike the perpetrators of the Help Kids Canada scam, the people running Covenant House are trying to do something to help the marginalized and less fortunate. God knows their intentions and will surely forgive them if, in their zeal, they do or advocate things that are morally questionable. But that doesn't mean that it's racist or homophobic or uncharitable or un-Christian to disagree with what they're doing. To give or not to give, the choice is yours.

What to expect when the Muslims take over your country

Quick, now, what's the largest Muslim country in the world? Noooo... not France, not Algeria, not even Pakistan. The right answer is Indonesia! [I knew that. Ed.] The southest Asian country sprawls over a huge archipelago -- two time zones wide -- and has a population of 251,000,000. 2% of Indonesians are Hindus. 3% are Catholic. 6% are other Christians. And 86% -- eighty-six percent -- are Muslims.

In the western Indonesian province of Aceh, the percentage who are followers of the Prophet rises to 98%! That number may rise due to an exodus of "infidels" expected in the wake of last week's announcement that the provincial government will extend the enforcement of Sharia law to non-Muslims. Click here to read the report in the Jakarta Post.

Violations of Sharia include drinking liquor, khalwat (affectionate contact between an unmarried couple), and (for women) wearing tight pants or not wearing the hijab. Anyone found drinking alcohol or breaching the codes on moral behavior, whether residents or visitors to Aceh, could face between six and nine lashes of the cane.

Police have been stopping women -- Muslim or non-Muslim -- seen not wearing the correct headgear. The Fides news service reports the 62 people have been detained in Aceh in recent days for "inappropriate clothing." Christian leaders in the Indonesian province have decried the new directives as "harmful for human rights and religious freedom."

Moral of the story: Don't even think of going to Aceh!

WARNING! Do you think your country is safe because Muslims are not in the majority...yet? Just wait! In the name of political correctness, almost every Western government is encouraging immigration from Muslim countries, or at least accepting 1000s of "refugees" every month from the war-torn sandpits of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and so forth -- Muslim countries all.

To make matters worse, while we "Christians" ignore the Church's prohibitions on artificial birth control and abortion, the Muslims are breeding like rabbits! Even if our borders were closed tomorrow [fat chance! Ed.], Muslims would become more numerous than non-Muslims later, rather than sooner. In the French-speaking countries of north Africa and the Middle East, it's called la revanche du berceau -- the revenge of the cradle... coming soon to your country!

Univision poll shows world's Catholics deeply divided on moral issues

The Spanish-language network Univision has just released the results of a massive poll of Catholics in 12 countries with some of the world’s largest Catholic populations. The poll confirms that there are sharp differences of opinion amongst self-identified Catholics over Church teachings.

The poll of 12,000 Catholics, conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International, reveals a church dramatically divided between the developing world in Africa and Asia, which hews closely to traditional doctrine on issues such as same-sex "marriage", abortion and contraception, and the "Western" countries of Europe, North America and parts of Latin America, where there is considerable support for practices that the Church traditionally taught are immoral.

Recent pronouncements by Pope Francis have muddied the holy water on things like homosexuality, but we'll leave the party pope's pandering aside for now.

Catholics in developing countries are more accepting than their European and American counterparts of Church teachings on homosexuality and contraception. The poll found, for example, that 99% of African respondents oppose same-sex marriage, while in the USA only 40% think it's unnatural and disgusting. (OK, I admit to a bit of editorializing there.) 80% of Africans (polling was done in the Congo and Uganda) accept the Church teaching that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood, while only 30% of European Catholics agreed.

Should divorcés who remarry outside the Church be able to receive communion? Traditional teaching says not, but only 19% of Catholics in the European countries and 30% of those in Latin America agree.

Most disturbing to traditionalists was the finding that the majority of Catholics, worldwide, would allow abortion, at least in some circumstances. Overall, 65% said abortions should be allowed: 8% in all cases and 57% in some, such as when the mother’s life is in danger. The highest support for abortion is in European countries, then Brazil and Argentina, then the USA, where 76% said it should be allowed in some or all cases.

Walt recommends reading the entire article in the Washington Post: Pope Francis faces church divided over doctrine, global poll of Catholics finds

Towards the end of the piece the writers raise a question with grave implications for the future of Church doctrine. Now that the Church is run by a man whose ambition is to be the most popular pope ever -- even more popular than JPII! -- is Church doctrine to be altered according to the tides of public opinion?

"Since the liberalizing and divisive Second Vatican Council," they write [Walt's emphasis], "Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II appeared to approach the gap [between dogma and public opinion] with an explicit plan: Narrow it. They emphasized doctrine and called for institutions that wanted to call themselves Catholic to follow the rules.

"So what is Pope Francis’s plan, if he has one? Critics say his solicitation of opinions wrongly gives the appearance that Catholicism is a democracy.... Jose Casanova [a sociologist of religion at ultra-liberal Georgetown University] said it’s not clear what Francis plans to do with the research, but the approach 'fits with his idea of the church going out into the world and encountering the world as it is, not expecting the world to come to it.'

"The Church 'may be in a period of moral evolution,' he said."

Moral evolution, eh... That's a pretty ominous phrases. Walt wonders if it really means what's right and wrong is subject to change without notice, depending on the results of the latest poll. "If people don't like what the Church teaches, then the Church will teach what they do like." Lord, save us!

Miami archbishop says religious freedom under assault in USA

"America's 'first freedom', the freedom of religion, is under great stress if not under outright assault — and not just for Catholics." So says Very Rev. Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, writing in the Fort Lauderdale SunSentinel.

The cause of the stress? "...a reductive secularism that has more in common with the French Revolution than with America's founding." Citing recent attacks on religious liberty, Abp. Wenski calls the HHS mandate for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs "even more ominous".

"The Church cannot not oppose this unjust (and we believe unconstitutional) mandate," he writes. "It is not a matter of whether contraception may be prohibited by the government. This is not even a matter of whether contraception may be supported by the government. Instead, it is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception or sterilization, even if that violates their religious beliefs."

Click here to read Abp. Wenski's article in its entirety.

10 ways the Obama administration offends Catholics

Frankly, I'd lost count of the number of ways in which the policies of the Prez have offended not just Catholics, but Christians of all stripes. But someone -- other than God -- is keeping score!

Writing for Catholic Vote.org, Tom Hoopes lists 10 ways in which the Obama administration's policies have offended Catholic voters. The HHS mandate, he says, is merely the latest. So here's the list.

1. Pro-abortion extremism, attacking the right to life.
2. Forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraception and sterilization.
3. Forcing Catholics to pay for birth control pills.
4. Breaking Obama's Notre Dame promise to “draft a sensible conscience clause”.
5. Disappointing anti-war Catholics by sticking to the Bush administration’s Iraq timetable, Afghanistan strategy and Guantanamo Bay policy.
6. Ordering US Army chaplains to not read a pastoral letter about forced contraception coverage.
7. Trying (until stopped by the Supreme Court) to insert the federal government in the hiring and firing of civilian ministers of religion.
8. Demonizing Catholics officially as bigots for supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, and refusing to assist homosexual couples in adoptions.
9. “Catholics need not apply” policies, denying Catholics the ability to fulfill certain charitable grants.
10. Anti-immigrant policies, especially targetting Latinos who are predominantly Catholic.

Catholics! Is there some or any of this you didn't know about? Read the article for examples and proofs. And don't forget to vote in November!

Committee formed to fight Obama's plans to curtail religious liberty

We all know that President O'Bama is a true democrat. Right? And those rumours that Al is really a Muslim are just BS. Right? So why does his administration -- particular the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) -- keep forcing pro-life Christians, especially those in health care, to follow their evil agenda on contraception, abortion and forced sterilization?

That's the big question that Cardinal Francis George and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan have asked in a number of letters to the Prez. Have they received any answers? About as likely as the sudden revelation that the Pope is a Mason. [Errr...let me check on that. Ed.]

In a letter to other bishops, Archbishop Dolan stated that “I have offered to meet with the President to discuss these concerns and to impress upon him the dire nature of these actions by [his] government.” Having received no answer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), of which Msgr. Dolan is President, is forming an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

“This basic right, in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America,” Archbishop Dolan said in his letter.

“The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued regulations that would mandate the coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans,” he continued. “HHS is also requiring that MRS [Migration and Refugee Services] provide the ‘full range of reproductive services’ to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts —and we all know what that means.”

“Catholic Relief Services is also concerned that USAID, under the Department of State, is increasingly requiring comprehensive HIV prevention activities (for example, condom distribution), as well as full integration of reproductive health activities including provision of artificial contraception, within a range of international relief and development programs,” Archbishop Dolan added. “The federal Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an act of bigotry.”

“The establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee is one element of what I expect to be a new moment in the history of our Conference. Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.”

Christians, let us pray that this initiative yields real and visible positive change for religious liberty in the USA. And while we're at it, how about saying a prayer for a change in administration next year. Of course that would presuppose that one of the putative Republican candidates would actually have the courage to stand up for freedom of religion. Walt is waiting for one of them -- any one -- to say as much.

Focus on "family planning" in Africa "insane", says African journalist

Following up my earlier post, I commend to you an article by Gaston Asitaki, an African journalist based in Kinshasa, in the so-called Democractic Republic of Congo. (This is one of the countries Her Jeanness, the Governor-General and First Lady of Canada, visited on her farewell tour earlier this month.)

Mr. Asitaki says that the intense focus of US foreign aid on expanding family-planning programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo is "certifiably insane." The urgent need for the country's impoverished people is an adequate supply of ordinary medicine. Antibiotics, he says, save lives...not condoms.

Click here to read "We need penicillin, not condoms, in central Africa".

The solution to the problem of poverty: condoms for all!

No post has drawn more comments recently than "Covering Haiti with rubber".

Readers are taking issue with the math. (How many condoms does it take to fill 83,300 cu. ft. of warehouse space? Answer: A lot!) "Luna" wants to know the source of the quote from Canadian general Romeo Dallaire. (Answer: Ask LifeSite News.)

Seems to me those who quibble about the fine points of the story -- which has not been denied by the Red Cross, the Haitian government or anyone else -- are failing to see the forest for the trees. [What trees? Haiti was largely deforested even before the earthquake! ed.]

The point is that a lot of the "aid" which goes to Haiti and other impoverished or disaster-stricken third-world countries is in appropriate and arguably wasted. Sending condoms -- whether a thousand or a million -- to Haiti or Rwanda is not addressing the real needs of those poor countries' people.

Rather, sending aid is something rich white liberals do because they feel guilty...or because they have a hidden agenda, such as promoting birth control even if such goes against the culture and religion of the people.

Hey, if we can't whip evangelical Christianity on `em, at least we can stop `em from reproducing! Or we could kidnap those "unwanted children" whose birth could have been prevented if only the people had had enough condoms!