Yesterday the Massachusetts Bishops announced 
members of the search committee to select the new Exec. Director of the Mass Catholic Conference. They’re looking to replace the previous head, Ed Saunders, who passed away due to cancer–and who had been hired under a search process led by and rigged by Fr. Bryan Hehir (see Fr. Hehir and the Muting of the Church’s Public Policy Voice). You would think that with all of the blogging underway lately and the controversy over how Fr. Hehir picked Saunders, they’d be a bit more careful this time around. Nope. It’s so bad that we are converting our FedUp campaign today to tell the Holy See how the Massachusetts Bishops are flubbing this one already. One reader already said to us, “The Massachusetts Bishops need basic instruction in how to do a Google search.” We agree.
The search for the leader of the public policy voice of the Mass Catholic Bishops is being led by Bishop Coleman of the Fall River Diocese. But the search committee announced yesterday includes Sr. Annette McDermott, SSJ from the Diocese of Springfield; James Brett, President and CEO of the New England Council; Rev. Michael K. McManus, Chancellor of the Diocese of Fall River and Msgr. Thomas Sullivan, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester. Bryan Hehir Exposed has no comment on the two priests. But Sr. McDermott and James Brett spell trouble, and suggest the fingerprints of Fr. Hehir are all over this one once again. See Tenth Crusade (formerly ThrowtheBumsOutin2010 for Carol McKinley’s perspective on this).
Here’s what we learned about Sr. McDermott within 1 minute of getting the news. She was a member of the left-wing George-Soros-funded Catholic Alliance for the Common Good. CatholicCulture.org describes Catholic Alliance for the Common Good as follows:
Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics published by Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good — which is led by former advisors to Senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton — is nothing other than a well-funded attempt to try to persuade Catholics that it is morally acceptable to continue to vote for the “personally opposed” pro-choice candidates who have swindled them in the past.
As the Catholic Key Blog (from the staff of the Diocese of Kansas City newspaper) summarized it in 2008, their purpose was convincing Catholics it was OK to vote for pro-choice Democrats. They describe how Cardinal George slammed the “fraud” of CACG’s “common good” approach and banned their materials from parishes. (Here’s a link to Cardinal George’s letter, critical of their approach, without naming names). After the 2008 campaign, it came out that CACG was actually an instrument of the Obama presidential campaign, and that the board chair of CACG personally raised $350,000 for the Obama Campaign. If you are not already FedUp with the prospect that Sr. Annette, a member of CACG, is on the search committee to select the new head of the Mass Catholic Conference, hold onto your seat. There’s more.
As if Sr. McDermott’s membership in Catholic Alliance for the Common Good wasn’t bad enough, she is also listed as a consultant to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in this 2006 newsletter. Those are the guys that funded ACORN for years, and you can either check out our post on them, or just do a Google search of “Catholic Campaign for Human Development” and ACORN and you’ll find articles like these:
US Bishops Anti-Poverty Arm Defunds Accused Group (March 25, 2010)
CCHD Pushes Pro-Abort Groups in Lent Stations of the Cross (March 2010)
Green Bay bishop questions Catholic charities (March 2010)
Time to Start Answering Questions about Catholic Campaign for Human Development (Feb. 2010)
More Proof the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Should Be Eliminated (Sept 2009)
The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN (Sept 2009)
Catholic Campaign for Human Development and ACORN – Rotten to the Core (Oct 2008)
This combination of items in Sr. Annette’s background should not only have disqualified her from the search committee, but is grounds for her being removed from the board of the Mass Catholic Conference. Fed up yet? There’s more.
Let’s look at James Brett. Carol McKinley over at Tenth Crusade (formerly throwtheBumsOutin2010) weighed in on him and the whole situation saying:
Boston appointed James Brett, President & CEO of The New England Council. In 2009, James Brett’s New England Council presented “New Englander of the Year” Awards to some folks whose names might ring a bell to readers of Boston Catholic Insider and Bryan Hehir Exposed: John Kerry of Massachusetts, Jack Connors, Jr., Founding partner and Chairman emeritus of Hill Holliday and John Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction Company.
The former President and CEO of The New England Council is also Bryan Hehir’s friend and former member of Catholic Charities, Peter Meade. Peter resigned Catholic Charities to ‘protest’ the Bishops asking for a religious exemption so that Catholics could continue in the adoption business without disobeying our faith. Coincidently, James Brett is also a Catholic Charities colleague of Bryan Hehir’s.
These two people must be removed from the search committee for the new Executive Director of the Mass Catholic Conference, and whomever nominated them from each diocese should be removed from their position as well.
We are working to updated our FedUp campaign petition, but that will take another day, so we are asking all readers to drop a dime today to Bishop George Coleman’s office in Fall River at 508-675-1311 and let him know you think his committee needs to immediately lose Sr. McDermott and Mr. Brett. You can also try sending email to their Director of Communications, John Kearns (jkearns@fallriverdiocese.org), but we suggest you make the call to Bishop Coleman’s office ASAP. Check back later today for our updated FedUp campaign.
ps. Beyond the Catholic Conference search, we got an anonymous tip last evening that the Jack Connors’ hand-picked choice for Secretary of Development, Kathleen Driscoll, may have been settled on. If so, we have a huge crisis on our hands beyond MCC, but we’re just focusing on MCC for now until we learn more).
[...] 22, 2010 by Joe Sacerdo Last week we told you that the search for the new leader of the public policy arm of the Mass Catholic Bishops is tainted from th…by having two people on the search committee who have supported pro-abortion Catholic politicians. [...]
The current issue of the “New York Review of Books” has a three page article written by Goerge Soros telling everyone just who he is. I would urge everyone to read it and take heed. He has at least a billion dollars that he is using to “undercut” society. He is from Hungary and his relatives were taken by the Nazis and killed. He does not appear to have worked his entire life. It appears obvious tht he is fronting for some international socialist group which has the Catholic Church in its “crosshairs”. Bryan Hehir and Soros have parallel beliefs and lifestyles.