The Center Of Concern- Another Bernardin Legacy
By Mary Ann Budnik
As I was glancing over the "Peace Justice & Life Institute"
brochure of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, the name of
Fr. Jim Hug caused a flashback. I thought he was the priest who
told us to "just call me Jim" at the Women's Caucus in Copenhagen-
part of the 1995 UN World Summit for Social Development. I
recalled being shocked that a priest was so highly esteemed by
this proabortion, pro-goddess caucus. Joanna Bogle of England also
remembers "Jim's" involvement: "I did meet Fr. Hug at Copenhagen-
he was at the Women's Caucus! I did not at first know he was a
priest since he was not wearing clerical clothing.... Our
conversation was brief.... I was naturally concerned that anyone
involved with a Catholic group could be giving any support to the
Women's Caucus."
Bogle's recollection indicated that Fr. Hug attended more than one
meeting of the Women's Caucus, since we attended on separate days.
What was he doing working with a group that is at odds with the
Holy See? At the caucus meeting I attended, along with Fr. Hug, my
daughter raised the issue of contraceptives being forced on young
women in Third World countries. While a few supporters expressed
their agreement, Bella Abzug (founder of WEDO-the Women's
Environmental and Development Organizations) cut her off and took
control of the caucus. Almost shouting, she told the women, "A
handful of countries with the Vatican have stalled us. We are
going to make a stand. The Conference on Women will be our last
conference. We will get what we want! We will go on to change the
world! O Goddess, help us." Since Hug was <not> representing the
Holy See, what was <he> doing there?
While it is personally expensive, not to mention exhausting,
battling the pro-abortion, anti-family agenda of the UN at
conferences and their interminable meetings, it is even more
irritating to see these UN players pop up by invitation in one's
diocese. Contacting the director of the Office for Social
Concerns, I expressed my dismay. Any hope of having Fr. Hug's
invitation withdrawn was quickly dashed when Sister told me she
would discuss my information with the bishop.
After Christmas I received a letter from Sister telling me that I
had until Jan. 22nd to prove my allegations against Fr. James Hug,
S.J., and his Center of Concern (COC). Did she realize how apropos
her deadline was? It was the 24th anniversary of the infamous
Supreme Court decision of <Roe v. Wade!>
As I began to research the Center of Concern and Hug, I learned
that few pro-life or even Catholic organizations were aware of its
existence. COC works quietly in the background using its weighty
influence at the UN and with the U.S. bishops to advance the New
World Order, here and abroad. Its material is shrewdly written
from a socialist slant. Documents are sprinkled with references to
encyclicals when a "Catholic" flavor is needed. This powerful
"Catholic" think tank is humanistic by intent. Lou Jacquet (this
article was sent by COC, but without a date or title) writes:
"[The center's] overriding goal was to enable people to realize
that humanity is united in a common destiny and to assist people
in exercising their common responsibility to shape that destiny. "
It became pretty obvious that no matter what evidence I would
submit, Hug <would> speak in Springfield. After all, Fr. Hug
credits "the work of peace and justice offices [which] exists now
in dioceses and religious communities across the U.S. that did not
exist in 1971." Sister's office is just one of 198 that owes its
beginnings to COC.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Jacquet notes: "Fr. Hug
said the center was founded in 1971 at the invitation of the U. S.
bishops' conference. 'The bishops were aware that the U.S. was
playing a very strong global role, but that they had no think tank
in the U.S. to help the Church relate to Third World justice
issues,' he said. The bishops' conference approached the Jesuits
to see about the feasibility of opening such a center. It was
opened as an independently funded operation and has functioned
that way ever since. 'Our real mandate,' the priest explained, 'is
to help educate the U.S. Church about international justice issues
from a faith base'."
An article COC sent from <The National Catholic Reporter> (not
dated) explains how Fr. Pedro Arrupe, then superior general of the
Society of Jesus, asked a Canadian Jesuit, Fr. Bill Ryan,
codirector of the Social Action Department of the Canadian
Catholic Conference, to move to Washington, D.C., to "assist in
the establishment of an international center to study issues
relating to development, justice, and peace from a Christian
perspective.
"The proposed center, a joint initiative of the United States
Catholic Conference and the Society of Jesus, was to be
established as an independent organization.
"On May 4th, 1971, the center was formally announced by Arrupe and
then-Bishop Joseph Bernardin, who was general secretary of the
USCC, at a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General U Thant
in his New York office. The UN setting was strategic: From its
inception, the Center of Concern would have a global
perspective....
"Its work focused on the United Nations agenda, which included the
call for a new international economic order and a series of world
conferences that addressed global issues such as population,
environment, poverty, habitat, science and technology, and women.
The center would participate in these."
How was the center financed? A <Washington Post> article discloses
that Michael Novak helped "fund the center's beginnings in the
early 1970s when he was a member of the Rockefeller Institute, a
philanthropic center conducting research in the area of biology
and medicine." This is the same Michael Novak who is part of the
late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's Catholic Common Ground Project
committee.
Jacquet quotes Fr. Hug as saying that the 1970s were dedicated to
Third World issues at the UN. In the 1980s the focus changed to
shaping "the U.S. bishops' pastorals on nuclear arms and the
economy." <The National Catholic Reporter> adds that the center
was also involved in the pastorals on racism and peace, besides
becoming involved in "the peace movement, the women's movement,
the labor movement."
In the 1990s, COC became heavily embroiled in the Clinton health
care plan. Hug worked tirelessly with the Catholic Health
Association for its passage. <The Washington Post>. comments,
"Sometimes the center, an independent body, advocates views
opposed to the official teachings of the Catholic Church. The
funding of abortions that threatens the Clinton health initiative
is one example.
"'<Abortion has to be seen as important, but not the only
important issue. Abortion is not the only thing that kills. To
sacrifice the health care reform on the altar of abortion would be
a tragedy,>' Hug said" (emphasis added).
In this same article, Novak notes: "They [COC] tend to be totally
uncritical about the agenda on the left, whether it's the abortion
issue or the crisis-mongering in health care."
The 1990s have also seen vigorous involvement in the major UN
conferences by drawing in Catholic agencies. Not only is Fr. Hug a
member of the faculty of the Leadership Institute for Directors of
Catholic Charities U.S.A., but he is also a board member of the
United States Catholic Mission Association and the Religious Task
Force on Central America. Using these ties, COC prepared "a policy
statement and coordinating advocacy efforts for a broad religious
The 1990s have also seen vigorous involvement in the major UN
conferences by drawing in Catholic agencies. Not only is Fr. Hug a
member of the faculty of the Leadership Institute for Directors of
Catholic Charities U.S.A., but he is also a board member of the
United States Catholic Mission Association and the Religious Task
Force on Central America. Using these ties, COC prepared "a policy
statement and coordinating advocacy efforts for a broad religious
network comprised of 125 national Catholic Charities offices, 17
national Catholic development cofinancing agencies [Catholic
Relief Services in the U.S.] and their partners in the poor
nations of the world, European and U.S. justice and peace
commissions, and several Protestant interfaith organizations"
(fact sheet from the Center of Concern, May, 1995).
COC's tentacles are entwined in the women's movement through its
Women's Project headed by Sr. Maria Riley, O.P. (For more
information on COC's involvement with the radical feminists, see
Donna Steichen's <Ungodly Rage.>) Hug told Sister that "it is
factually wrong that he worked with WEDO to impose unrestricted
abortion, population control, and contraceptive or sterilizing
agents on teenage women throughout the world" why then is he a key
participant of the Women's Caucus? Why then does Sr. Riley work
with WEDO? In WEDO's brochure (under the heading of
"Health/Population"), it maintains: ". . . WEDO facilitated a
Women's Caucus to push the issue of family planning beyond
traditional boundaries to include women's empowerment and sexual
and reproductive rights. More than 70% of the recommendations made
by the Women's Caucus were included in the official UN draft
document."
The Internet ties COC and WEDO nicely together. Under COC's
Women's Project, we find the WEDO gopher listed under Links and
Resources. Reading further, under the NGO Forum 95 Info, we are
told about COC's training of women prior to the UN World
Conference on Women. A series of meetings was sponsored by COC.
The May 4th-7th, 1995 meeting in New York explains how
participants "will have the opportunity to meet with members of
the UN secretariat responsible for planning the conference and
members of the Planning Committee for Forum '95, as well as key
(NGO) women's groups, including the Women's International Tribune
Center, <Women's Environmental and Development Organizations
(WEDO),> and the Nongovernmental Liaison Service (NGLS)." Note the
word "key" as an adjective for WEDO.
While clippings on the Beijing conference from a broad range of
publications detailed the battle for life and the family that the
Vatican Third World countries, and pro-life groups waged, Fr. Hug
in his summary of the conference cloaks these facts with denial.
He writes in the <National Jesuit News,> "It is a vastly outdated
and distorted stereotype of the women's movement that sees it as a
Western, middle-class creation preoccupied with equality,
abortion, and power.... What about abortion and the charge that
the conference was hijacked by radical Western, anti-family
feminist forces? In a word, it was disinformation, a side show
carried on by a small, vocal, sometimes vicious, but overall
ineffectual group. At times they were supported [some say
'orchestrated'] by the Vatican delegation"[?]. Hug's statement is
blatant disinformation.
<The Wall Street Journal> reports: "Adds Msgr. Peter J. Elliott,
an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family: 'The whole
problem goes back to who drafted the document. It was put together
by North American and European feminists with ideas from the
1970s.... That explains its preoccupation with the pelvic zone'."
Fr. Hug emphasized to Sister that "the Center of Concern is not
involved in pro-life issues; their issues are economic justice:
poverty and education." It is well documented that the UN's
solution for all of the above problems is population control
through contraception, sterilization, sex ed, and unrestricted
abortion. Since COC and Fr. Hug are key players at the UN, why
isn't he fighting this aspect of the UN agenda? Why doesn't COC
support the Vatican's reservations? Instead, there is only a
pregnant silence from him and COC. (Pardon my pun.)
Concern for global peace and justice is noble if its foundation is
based on the right to life. Without that basic right, no other
rights are secure. How can a center dedicated to furthering peace
and justice "not [be] involved in pro-life issues.... "?
This article was taken from the February 6, 1997 issue of "The
Wanderer," 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733.
Subscription Price: $35.00 per year; six months $20.00.
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