CCCB Permanent Council receives report by Committee of Inquiry

Monday, June 22 2009

(CCCB-Ottawa)… During its meeting on 18 June 2009, the Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) received the report by the Committee of Inquiry that the CCCB had established to look into allegations concerning five Mexican organizations which had received project funding from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. The Permanent Council, chaired by CCCB President Most Reverend V. James Weisgerber, Archbishop of Winnipeg, also reflected on the recommendations by the Committee of Inquiry.

Following the usual procedure, the Bishops of Canada will receive the recommendations next for their information. After this, the recommendations will later be made public and posted on the CCCB website. Until the recommendations are published, neither the CCCB nor Development and Peace will be commenting on them.

The Committee of Inquiry was composed of Most Reverend Martin W. Currie, Archbishop of St. John’s and Bishop of Grand Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Most Reverend François Lapierre, P.M.É., Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Assisting them were Msgr. Mario Paquette, P.H., CCCB General Secretary, and Msgr. Carlos Quintana Puente, C.S.S., from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he is Executive Director of its Secretariat for the Church in Latin America.

In the course of a visit to Mexico, 15 to 18 April 2009, the Committee met with representatives of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, as well as with senior representatives of the organizations which have been accused of expressing support for abortion.

Development and Peace was founded by the Bishops of Canada in 1967 as the official Canadian Catholic agency for development work and emergency relief in the Global South. It is also the Canadian branch of Caritas Internationalis.