Washington D.C., Sep 16, 2010 / 04:00 am
The closure of the offices of the Democrat-leaning group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) has prompted debate over the role of partisan political funding for groups targeting Catholic voters. While one analyst says that Republican-leaning Catholic groups are better funded, a Catholic Republican disputes his claim.
Catholics in Alliance closed its Washington, D.C. office at the end of July and no longer has paid staff.
Dr. Liza Cahill of Boston University, a member of CACG's advisory board, explained to CNA in an e-mail earlier this month that the group "is in a holding pattern and staff have gone into positions at similar organizations." Subsequent communication with the group revealed that it had moved to a midtown D.C. office and is planning a series of blog posts on social justice issues.
Fred Rotondaro, chairman of the CACG board of directors and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told the National Catholic Reporter he is working on new fundraising and is planning to communicate through the internet and e-mail. He said subscribers to the group’s mailing list numbers about 40,000.
According to Rotondaro, the group was formed in 2005 after the presidential election “when I think a number of progressive Catholics came to the belief that social justice ideas were not being very seriously considered by a lot of Catholics when they came to voting.”