The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the national anti-poverty and social justice program of the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic C ...

(USCCB)

History

CCHD was begun in 1969 as the National Catholic Crusade Against Poverty by the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

bishops in the United States, in part as a response to

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

'' Populorum progressio'' ("The Progress of Peoples"). CCHD's mission is "to address the root causes of poverty in America through promotion and support of community-controlled self-help organizations and through transformative social justice, education, and solidarity between poor and non-poor". The Campaign had its origins in the 1960s with Chicago priest (and later Bishop)

Michael Dempsey Michael Stephen Dempsey (born 29 November 1958) is an English musician, best known as the bassist for the Cure and The Associates (band), the Associates. Biography Dempsey was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now known as Harare, Zimbabwe ...

while serving as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on the West Side. He served as the organization's first leader after his appointment as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese. Future cardinal Joseph Bernardin also played a major role in its founding. CCHD is supported by an annual collection in U.S. Catholic

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

, and individual donations. Allegations that some CCHD-funded organizations were promoting

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

and radical politics, and that the CCHD was a force of internal corruption within the USCCB were addressed in 2010 with the ''Review and Renewal of CCHD'', which affirmed the core mission of CCHD and instituted controls to ensure that all CCHD-funded initiatives are consistent with Catholic mission and identity. CCHD had revenues of $18.1 million for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017.

References

External links

Catholic Campaign for Human Development website
Catholic charities Criminal justice reform in the United States {{RC-society-stub