Nairobi, 13 March, 2024 / 8:55 pm (ACI Africa).
The alleged participation of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the promotion of contraception and abortion programs in some African countries must be halted, leaders of the Lepanto Institute (LI) and Population Research Institute (PRI) have said.
The call on the humanitarian arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to stop their alleged engagement in programs that foster population reduction in a section of African countries was made during a March 6 virtual press conference, during which the findings of a joint 120-page report by both organizations on the subject were highlighted.
In his input, the LI President, Michael Hichborn, said, “For more than a decade, CRS has denied that its projects included contraception and condom promotion, but this report proves otherwise.”
“In all of the CRS project areas our team visited, it was clear that CRS was far more interested in working with other NGOs to implement U.S.-funded contraception outreach programs than with the local Catholic Church hierarchy,” Hichborn said during the conference that sampled had evidentiary documents that show the involvement of CRS in U.S. aid programs that promote population reduction programs, including the use of contraceptives and abortion in Cameroon, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.
“This must stop,” he said, adding that “first and foremost, CRS should have first sought permission from each and every local Bishop, from each and every Diocese in which it intends to operate, disclosing each and every aspect of the project and committing to full cooperation with the Diocese.”
