Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ark. Catholics Asked to Stop Donations to Komen Foundation

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A breast cancer foundation known for its fundraising races across the globe faces increased scrutiny from Roman Catholic church dioceses for its support of Planned Parenthood.

The church's Little Rock diocese has urged its members not to donate to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which has invested about $1 billion in cancer outreach and research. The reason, church leaders say, comes from the Dallas-based foundation giving money to Planned Parenthood to hold breast exams and offer education to women in its clinics.

"Donors cannot control how an organization designates its funds," the diocese statement reads. "Therefore, money donated for a specific service ... directly frees up funds to support other areas of an organization's agenda."

Marianne Linane, director of the diocese's "respect life" office, said those other agendas include abortions and contraceptive services. The Catholic church's policy is that abortion is wrong in every instance.

Linane said the Little Rock diocese, which oversees all churches in Arkansas, used the same statement sent out by the church's St. Louis diocese last year. However, the end of the Little Rock letter included addresses of Arkansas hospitals parishioners could donate to that would eliminate "the administrative funds for a middle broker..."

1 comment:

Lynne said...

I've know about this connection for a while. I'm so glad some of our bishops are speaking on on this!!!