Crosscare, a Catholic charity run by the Archdiocese of Dublin, has been criticised for its ties to abortion-supporting youth information service SpunOut.ie and an LGBTQ+ youth organisation which helps advise young people on how to change their gender.
Prominent Belfast priest Fr Paddy McCafferty has criticised Crosscare for its ties with Spunout.ie, as well as for its LGBTQ+ advocacy. He says the worldviews promoted through Crosscare’s collaborations are in direct conflict with the teachings of the Catholic church on the sanctity of life, the human person and sexuality. According to Fr McCafferty, the organisation is sending out a confused signal to Catholic young people.
According to last year’s annual report, the registered charity had an income of €25,322,492, with sources of funding including government grants and an annual collection at Catholic churches.
The Irish social care services charity in the Dublin Archdiocese launched a collaboration with SpunOut.ie in recent months. In information on its website, Spunout, who advocated for a yes vote in the abortion referendum, advises 15 year-olds that it is possible to get an abortion in exceptional circumstances, possibly “without parental consent”.
In 2018, the organisation backed a yes vote on abortion, urging young people to vote to remove Ireland’s legislative protection for the unborn. SpunOut.ie stated that the eighth amendment was “harming pregnant people.”
SpunOut added: “For compassionate, regulated, and safe abortion care in Ireland, we need to vote Yes […] Spunout.ie are asking you to vote yes for compassionate care in Ireland.”
Crosscare has also been criticised for its promotion of LGBTQ+ advocacy in conflict with Catholic teaching on human personhood and sexuality. In September, Crosscare published a ‘Guide to all things gay’ on its website which was created by Bray LGBTQ+ Youth Group. The guide promotes LGBT culture, films, events and music, including a signer who goes by the name of ‘Lesbian Jesus’. It also includes information on “how to change your gender” — advising those over 18 and also under 18 on how to do so.”
The 56-page guide includes a section on the ‘A to Z of all things gay’ and defines terms including “cisgender”,“drag queen/king”, and gender neutral pronouns “ze and hir”.
PRIEST COMMENTS
Fr McCafferty, who is parish priest of Corpus Christi Parish in Ballymurphy, West Belfast, is well known for his advocacy for people abused in the Church and for the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre.
Crosscare says it is “Inspired by the example and teachings of Jesus Christ,” adding that: “Crosscare has a vision of a society where all people have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and a mission to help those most in need.” However, speaking to Gript, Fr McCafferty described Crosscare’s actions as ‘treacherous’. He warned that Crosscare’s links with causes in conflict with church doctrine have the potential to seriously mislead and confuse faithful Catholics by promoting a worldview that is contrary to that of the Catholic church.
On Crosscare’s collaboration with abortion-supporting SpunOut.ie, Fr McCafferty said: “It makes a mockery of the faith and the pro-life stance that every Catholic is required to uphold. The very nature of being a Catholic means we uphold the sanctity of every human life from conception to bodily death.
“[These groups] are attempting to impose a disposable approach to human life; the Church must be utterly against that. We cannot have any truck whatsoever with anyone who would water (church teaching) down or compromise it.”
“COMPLETELY CONTRARY TO THE FAITH”
On Crosscare’s LGBTQ+ advocacy, Fr McCafferty said: “We may become a smaller Church but we should have nothing to do with the prevailing ideologies which are attempting to define human beings differently according to how God created them.
“[As Catholics] that agenda is foreign to us. That is worldly ideology and [as Catholics], we do not define human beings in terms of sexuality. We are created in the image and likeness of God – male and female. Compassion and understanding for people in their struggles does not mean we embrace their ideology that is completely contrary to the faith and to the teaching of scripture and to the tradition of the church.”
“That is watering down; it’s compromising; it’s everything that we shouldn’t be doing; conforming to the world in absolute disobedience to the word of God. The word of God tells us, ‘Be not conformed to this world’, but rather, we are to be the opposite of what the world is.
“This nonsense today tells us we have to accommodate the culture; well, we don’t have to accommodate the culture, we have to be counter-cultural; we have to stand against the culture. It’s clear Christians have always had to stand against the culture, and any attempt to accommodate the culture is extremely dangerous and treacherous, and never works out well.” He added that such collaborations were “terribly dangerous spiritually.”
Fr McCafferty called for the charity to cut ties with organisations promoting messages not in-line with Catholic teaching. The priest also encouraged Catholics to remain strong in authentically living out their faith and not compromising with the culture.