SEARCH C-FAM
Friday Fax UN Blog
Facebook 
Twitter
International Tax Proposed to Aid MDG Funding
9/3/2010 01:00 PM
UNFPA Executive Director Departs
9/1/2010 09:36 AM
"The Future of the European Union"
9/1/2010 08:51 AM
Independent Audit Panel Finds Flaws in UN Climate Reports
8/31/2010 10:56 AM
Conscientious Objection Objected to by European Politicians
8/31/2010 06:56 AM
Volume 4, Number 44
October 26, 2001
Girl Scouts at UN Charged with Supporting Anti-Catholic Group
(NEW YORK - C-FAM) This week the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights charged the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides (WAGGGS) with promoting anti-Catholicism. The charges against the Girl Scouts stem from an email message sent by their UN representative promoting a job opening at "Catholics" for a Free Choice (CFFC), a pro-abortion lobbying group that has been repeatedly condemned by the Catholic Bishops.
Long time UN activist Leslie Wright represents the Girl Scouts at the UN, which has official UN recognition as a non-governmental organization. At the UN Wright works with a coalition called the NGO Committee on the Status of Women and it was to this email list that Wright promoted the job opening at CFFC.
The job announcement, written by CFFC and posted by Wright on October 11, called CFFC an "an independent, non-governmental organization working for women's sexual and reproductive rights in church and society." CFFC is run by Francis Kissling, a former abortion clinic owner who told Mother Jones Magazine she intends to "overthrow" the Catholic Church. CFFC has also run a campaign to have the Vatican thrown out of the UN.
C-FAM president Austin Ruse contacted Wright shortly after Wright published the notice. In a short exchange of emails Wright said, "Girl Scouts are of many faiths, and we try to take a tolerant approach. We try to be thoughtful, kind and a friend to all" and that she apologizes "to no one for making available a job that they might need." Ruse turned the exchange over to the Catholic League last week.
The Catholic League contacted Jennifer Wagner, international relations coordinator for the Girl Scouts USA and Liz Shepard, director of media and communications both of whom defended Wright, saying the Girl Scouts were an "inclusive group." When told by Patrick Scully, director of communications for the Catholic League, that CFFC was "an expressly anti-Catholic group Wagner and Shepard said they were not "religion experts."
Ellen Christie, the Girl Scouts' director of media services, later told the Friday Fax that Leslie Wright "does not even work for the Girl Scouts USA. She doesn't even live in America. I think she lives in England." [Wright, an American, lives in New York City and has represented the Girl Scouts at the UN for at least two years.] Christie denied the Girl Scouts had ever even heard of CFFC "until recently." When pressed on whether the Girl Scouts would ever collaborate with CFFC, she declined to "speculate."
Catholic League president William Donohue intends to pursue the issue. "How unfortunate it is that an official at the umbrella organization (WAGGGS) that the Girl Scouts USA belongs to is aiding and abetting anti-Catholicism during working hours. More unfortunate still is the fact that the tired cliché regarding 'inclusiveness' is being voiced by Girl Scout leaders in this country. It would be instructive to know whether their commitment to inclusiveness extends to working with bigots."
