The verdict on CCODP is in

The verdict on CCODP is in, and it’s “not guilty, sort of.”

A Canadian bishops committee looking into allegations the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace helped fund groups promoting abortion has issued its report, and it takes a pretty gentle approach on CCODP, while saying there’s room for improvement.

It also says there’s room for improvement from the group that raised the allegations in the first place, LifeSite News.

LifeSite produced numerous evidence of CCODP funding going to groups that support abortion in Mexico and several other countries.

So the CCCB put together a committee of inquiry headed up by Archbishop Currie of St. John’s and Grand Falls, and Bishop Lapierre of Saint-Hyacinthe. It investigated allegations against five Mexican organizations.

The report was finalized June 18, and today it was made public. http://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/report_of_inquiry_committee.pdf

In short, it found no evidence that CCODP funded pro-abortion projects in Mexico.

It did call the five groups that did receive funding “imprudent” for signing onto a human rights document that “contains several orientations not in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church.” It also called on CCODP to be “more vigilant” in its choice of partners and requests for financial assistance.

No word, because it wasn’t part of the committee’s mandate, on the alleged pro-abortion and pro-contraception CCODP partners in East Timor, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Togo, Benin, Brazil, Haiti, Peru and Guinea, Bolivia or Peru, where the bishops of that country formally asked the bishops of Canada to stop funding pro-abortion groups there through CCODP.

Presumably this will be a topic of discussion when the bishops of Canada meet at their plenary meeting this fall.

Watch next week’s B.C. Catholic for full coverage.