Bishop Soto Named Chairman of the CCHD

I am tentatively hopeful this weekend. You see, yesterday my husband was catching up on his Catholic news online and this caught his eye. Bishop Jaime Soto (our Bishop!) has been named Chairman of the CCHD. Now I really like Bishop Soto. And from everything I've ever read or heard about him he is adamantly pro-life. In fact here's the title of the article from Life Site News: Outspokenly pro-life, pro-family bishop new head of US Bishops’ beleaguered CCHD.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

"...Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, who, for example, is known to lead prayerful processions to abortion facilities, will be charged especially with overseeing the implementation of the organization’s recently-launched “review and renewal”..."

"...“I am grateful for the work of the previous committee that has re-tooled CCHD so that it can be even more effective in its mission,” said Bishop Soto. “My committee will continue to monitor the progress for the implementations of the new guidelines.”

“God’s people are the Church’s best resource for the mission of New Evangelization,” he added. “CCHD will continue to invest in them so that they can be the protagonists of the Gospel, announcing the joy and hope of the Lord Jesus to a weary world.”"

Now I'm not about to encourage anyone to donate to the CCHD. Bishop Soto has a lot of work to do as the Chairman. But this has to be a good sign, right? Bishop Soto has stood up for Catholic teachings in the past when doing so was far from popular (a speech he made when he was still down in Southern California comes to mind). So this is, cautiously, a step in the right direction.

Of course I still very much advocate finding groups that actually work on the ground in your communities or out in the world and donating directly to them! I'm sure there's probably a soup kitchen in your town (or a rice bowl fund at your own parish) that could use the help this holiday season! And then you'll know that your money isn't paying for any skewed "social" agenda.

Let's all pray that Bishop Soto will stand up for Catholic teachings as he goes forward to (hopefully) truly reform the CCHD into a truly Catholic organization that will help build communities and values that respect both families and life.