CNA<\/a>).- Billionaire George Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundations sought to use Pope Francis\u2019 visit to the U.S. to influence the 2016 elections and cultivate influence within the Catholic Church, according to leaked documents attributed to the major grant makers.<\/p>\nThe documents said $650,000 in funds were committed for the foundations\u2019 grantees PICO Network and Faith in Public Life to respond to the papal visit. The foundations said they \u201cplaced a bet\u201d in early 2015 that the grantees would \u201cbe able to make the most of his trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to seize this moment, we will support PICO\u2019s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues,\u201d said the documents.<\/p>\n
The documents, published on the site DCLeaks.com, appear to be May 2015 and October 2015 board meeting books of the foundations\u2019 U.S. Programs division and a February 9, 2016 memo on the U.S. Programs\u2019 Opportunities Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy harnessing the Papal visit to lift up the Pope\u2019s searing critique of what he calls \u2018an economy of exclusion and inequality\u2019 and his dismissal of \u2018trickle down\u2019 theories, PICO and FPL will work to build a bridge to a larger conversation about bread-and-butter economic concerns and shift national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign,\u201d said the May 2015 document.<\/p>\n
The October 2015 document said the Pope\u2019s visit was an opportunity for the two grantees to focus on refugees, migrants, over-incarceration, and immigrant rights \u201cwhile also bringing new energy into the 2016 presidential conversation.\u201d The February 2016 memo said the funding allowed organizations to maximize the impact of the Pope\u2019s visit to emphasize \u201cthe humanity of prisoners, immigrants and the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The texts suggested this activity would include using the influence of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga and sending a delegation to the Vatican to allow the Pope to \u201chear directly from low-income Catholics in America.\u201d Cardinal Maradiaga, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, co-ordinates the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis.<\/p>\n
Deeply influential, the Open Society Foundations are involved in many domestic and overseas activities.<\/p>\n
Their funding for the papal visit efforts supported the work of Faith in Public Life in media framing and public opinion activities, including a poll on Catholic voters, Pope Francis and income inequality. The efforts aimed to secure media coverage for the message that fighting inequality is \u201cpro-family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Open Society Foundations planned to host a November 2015 \u201cFrancis effect\u201d briefing for funders including the Ford Foundation that would feature its two grantees, labor unions, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.<\/p>\n
The February 2016 memo said the funded activity aimed to secure \u201cbuy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages\u201d with the aim that this would begin to create, in the memo\u2019s understanding, \u201ca critical mass of bishops who are aligned with the Pope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPICO and FPL have been able to use their engagement in the opportunity of the Pope\u2019s visit to seed their position in the long-term project of shifting the priorities of the U.S. Catholic Church to focus on issues of injustice and oppression,\u201d the memo said.<\/p>\n
According to the memo, the Pope invited PICO to help plan the Third World Meeting of Popular Movements.<\/p>\n
\u201cResistance to this inside the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been stark, and grantees are engaged in a live fight with a faction of the Church that seeks to curb the Pope\u2019s influence on social justice issues,\u201d the memo claimed.<\/p>\n
The documents are not always accurate. The memo erroneously indicated the World Meeting of Popular Movements would take place in 2016, rather than 2017.<\/p>\n
It added that Faith in Public Life and PICO can strengthen the foundations\u2019 program goals if they can \u201cshift the U.S. Catholic Church to be a voice on behalf of the poor and communities of color.\u201d The memo said this is a long-term process that is \u201cnow underway.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declined to comment on the story.<\/p>\n
An Open Society Foundations spokesperson responded to CNA Aug. 30, saying, \u201cThe Pope has personally championed many of the social justice issues we work on at the foundations. We saw his visit as an opportunity to further discussion and policy debate on those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foundations characterized the document leak, which some have attributed to Russian intelligence, as \u201ca symptom of an aggressive assault on civil society and human rights activists that is taking place globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PICO Network told CNA that the Open Society Foundations was \u201cone of many individuals and foundations\u201d that supported its work on income inequality, immigration reform and criminal justice \u201chighlighted by Pope Francis and championed by the U.S. Catholic Church for many decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased that our efforts in conjunction with the Pope\u2019s historic visit to the U.S. helped to share and advance his mission and message about the importance of the Catholic Church and people from all faiths standing with the poor and the powerless,\u201d PICO said.<\/p>\n
The network said it continues to work with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the U.S. bishops to advance Catholic Social Teaching. This includes a planned convening of the World Meeting of Popular Movements in the U.S. in 2017.<\/p>\n
PICO did not answer questions about the alleged conflict within the U.S. bishops. It said Cardinal Maradiaga has supported its work with Central American faith communities for 10 years and spoke at a PICO launch event for its \u201cYear of Encounter with Pope Francis\u201d in early 2015.<\/p>\n
PICO, founded in 1972 by Father John Bauman, S.J., describes itself as a nationwide network of faith-based organizations. It claims 1,000 member institutions in 17 U.S. states and claims success in increasing access to health care while improving public schools, affordable housing and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n
The other grantee involved, Faith in Public Life, has at times undermined the U.S. bishops.<\/p>\n
When the bishops launched their first religious freedom event, Fortnight for Freedom, in 2012 to protest Obama administration mandates violating Catholics\u2019 religious freedom, Faith in Public Life Catholic program director John Gehring spread talking points against the bishops.<\/p>\n
Other Open Society Foundations documents discuss its backing for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, whose first contact with the foundations was in 2006.<\/p>\n
It also backed the petition site Faithful America in order to mobilize \u201cprogressive faith voices.\u201d The site has sometimes targeted Catholic bishops and organizations that stand by Catholic teaching.<\/p>\n
Other leaked documents appear to show the Open Society Foundations contributed $1.5 million to support Planned Parenthood\u2019s $7-8 million lobbying response to videos allegedly proving the abortion provider was engaged in the illegal sale of fetal body parts. The foundations are also funding pro-abortion rights groups to target Ireland\u2019s pro-life law as a potential model to end abortion restrictions in other Catholic countries like Poland.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network is among the foundations\u2019 many grantees.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Sep 1, 2016 \/ 11:15 am (CNA).- Billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations sought to use Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. to influence the 2016 elections and cultivate influence within the Catholic Church, according t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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