Just A Day at CC

As mentioned before, a couple of other volunteers and myself started a diaper drive/ baby supply closet. Our local Catholic Charities has been gracious enough to give us a few shelves in a supply closet for diapers, and allow us the use of their waiting room to wait for parents who might be seeking baby supplies. It of course comes with a price: we are absolutely NOT allowed to mention any political agendas. No one has a problem with that. While what inspires our teeny, little ministry is certainly our pro-life beliefs as well as our Christian philosophy, but this ministry is simply about helping people who need things such as diapers, wipes, bottles, bibs,.baby toiletries. That’s all. Being pro-life is not simply limited to political rants. Nevertheless, when we were setting up our little closet shelves, some Catholic Charity workers overheard one us mention they did similar volunteer work at Birthright and we were quickly reprimanded and reminded that we are NOT ever to mention our pro-life stance.
Like I said, I do not care to lecture anyone, or to use this as a bridge to a pro-life platform into the community. I just want to help. Catholic Charities gets a great deal of government funding and would like to be seen as politically neutral-I get that. I am grateful they have given us an in road to help. However, there is something disheartening about a Catholic organization being so fearful of standing behind a Catholic stance of being pro-life. (Too bad PP isn’t as spooked to be politically neutral in the face of government funding. )
Still with this in mind, I was kind of shocked to see stacks of these pamphlets in the waiting room:

This annoyed me. First was the obvious, the 468 lectures about being politically neutral despite the fact our “controversial” position was in keeping with Catholic teaching. Like I said, what-EV, my last desire was to get into any political debates or to spread an agenda besides handing out diapers.
Here is what really bothers me. One of the forums from the back of the flyer were:

Raising Our Children
A support group for LGBT parents raising children in a not-so-gay-friendly world. We provide a safe environment for parents to share challenges and successes. In ROC, we seek to help others build and maintain a strong and caring community for the benefit of LGBT parents and their children. Childcare will be available. The discussion group will be facilitated by…

“…raising children in a not-so-gay-friendly world”? Are you kidding me? Here we are in an atmosphere where straight parents have to have secret handshakes at a Catholic organization to get a few diapers. Heck, I shouldn’t blame In Our Own Voices, Inc for being on the ball and organizing help for their own. But I do blame organizations that SHOULD give equal voice and support to the average family who struggles because there lacks a sense of community, and there is a lack of , and only contempt to people who bring children into the world. As always, I blame the Church at a parish level (especially in this diocese) for not giving more aid to families (Renee can’t be the only one).
For crying out loud, one of the sponsors is Barefoot Wine. Barefoot Wine should have a disclaimer thanking the Catholic Church, or at least the Upstate Moss family, for a good portion of business. I am unsure how many bottles of Barefoot Merlot or Chardonnay I have consumed at dinner after a day of begging little boys to stop burping, to stop eating flash cards, to stop locking kittens in closets, and to stop falling out of chairs during reading lessons and using chair-falling-out of as an excuse as to why it is impossible to do school work. Heck I used to have a “not before supper” wine drinking rule that has graduated to a “while preparing supper” rule. More money in their pocket.
Update: My daughter informs me the reason why CC is so uptight about our baby closet is because we too closely resemble controversial crisis pregnancy centers-you know, other places that people volunteer to distribute diapers and baby supplies, but have the audacity not to offer abortions…just diapers.