Bishops, CCODP forum clears air on problem issues

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and its development agency have begun a new forum for dialogue on contentious issues that should go a long way to preventing controversial explosions like that which came down upon the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace last spring, said the agency’s executive director. 

“The meeting clarified that both CCODP and the CCCB mutually agree it is important to involve local bishops from the Global South in the dialogue, discussion and rapport that are part of development work,” said a joint communiqué issued Sept. 26. “It also agreed that when CCODP identifies questions or concerns about this, it will consult with the CCCB Standing Committee.”

Rather than “lurch forward” and deal with situations “piecemeal,” the bishops’ Standing Committee “is the forum where these issues are now going to be discussed rather than precipitous actions on either side,” said Michael Casey, executive director of the bishops’ international development agency.

“We need a place where we can have a reasoned discussion on the issues we are facing. None of the situations we get involved in are clear black and white.”  

CCODP works in partnership with non-Catholic organizations that may share some of the same goals but not all the same beliefs; it needs to know the parameters for engagement, Casey said.

“We are the Church in the world, engaged in a social justice ministry,” he said. “When you’re that involved, things are very rarely clear cut. It’s very prudent and timely that we have these hints of dialogue and guidance available to us on these.”

CCODP has to ensure the Church is “comfortable with the work we are doing and on the other hand we remain faithful to the teachings of the Church and our ministry of social justice,” he said.

The meeting was a result of issues raised by pro-life web sites that accused CCODP of partnering with a number of agencies with pro-abortion leanings. This came to a head when Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., pulled the plug on talks that were to be given by Fr. Luis Arriaga in Ottawa last spring. Arriaga was then head of the Centre PRODH, a Mexican human rights agency that had been a CCODP partner for two decades.

CCODP cut Centre PRODH’s funding after the archbishop of Mexico City wrote a letter to the Canadian bishops saying Centre PRODH “has supported pro-abortion groups and promoted the purported woman’s right over her body, against unborn life.”

Casey described a “good spirit of collaboration and mutual support” at the meeting, which included six bishops and the CCCB’s general secretary as well as four members of CCODP’s national council and Casey.