Even after repeated attempts to speak with Ken Gavin, the Archdiocesan Communications Director, through the phone and by email about this matter, the Archdiocese chose to ignore these attempts and then issue the following statement:The Lepanto Institute has proven once again that it is not interested in presenting information in any useful way. Neither the World Meeting of Families—Philadelphia 2015 nor any of its leadership supports Planned Parenthood. Lepanto’s sole intention is to create division, confusion, and conflict within the Church. Actions of that nature run contrary to Christian tradition. Their reports are not to be taken seriously.

It is important to note that all of the information the Lepanto Institute published regarding Robert Ciaruffoli and all of the information contained in this report was emailed to Ken Gavin, with the express request for clarification or correction if any of the information was false.  The email sent to Gavin, and then re-sent to Gavin a few days later said the following:

Ken,

I wanted to alert you and Archbishop Chaput to some new information I have obtained regarding the leadership team of the World Meeting of Families.  Given our last correspondence, I wanted to make sure to send the information to you and the Archbishop before publishing my findings, which I plan to do next week.  Of course, if you have any comments on the information I am providing, I will be happy to incorporate them into my article.  Given that Archbishop Chaput has forbidden LGBT activist organizations to use Church grounds during the World Meeting of Families, I would imagine that if he was aware of the backgrounds of these individuals, he would equally have not allowed them to obtain leadership positions for the event.

(fully detailed information contained in both this article and the one on Ciaruffoli were provided here, before the closing line …)

Please let me know if any of my information is mistaken.  I have already put in a set of questions to Mr. Ciaruffoli.  And as I said, I am happy to make any corrections and include any comments from the Archdiocese regarding this information.  My deadline is 5:00 PM, Monday, August 24.

God bless,
Michael

Due to a lack of response, the deadline was moved to 1:00PM the following day in order to allow for the possibility of discussing this matter by phone.  Gavin did not return either phone message left for him that morning.

Since the Communications department for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has decided to continue to ignore the information provided by the Lepanto Institute and instead chose to slander our intentions, we have no choice but to publish the rest of our findings.

After receiving a tip about the president of the World Meeting of Families, the Lepanto Institute investigated members of the Executive Cabinet, finding that several of them have worked very hard against Catholic moral teaching on matters pertaining to life and marriage.  Several members of the leadership team, including honorary co-chairs, co-chairs of the leadership cabinet and cabinet members either promote abortion and homosexuality themselves, or they are presidents and CEOs of companies that do.

While it may be understandable that such a large event would require planners to work with individuals who attack the Church, that doesn’t mean they should be given honorary titles or places of prominence in the event itself.  For example, while the annual March for Life in Washington, DC certainly requires a lot of planning, coordination and permissions from local officials, the pro-abortion mayor of Washington, DC’s name has never appeared on any March for Life literature.

Even the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has an official policy regarding the provision of awards, honors and platforms for individuals who actively and openly defy Catholic moral teaching.  The policy is:

“The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

Considering the positions taken by the following individuals listed as members of the leadership of the World Meeting of Families, either by themselves or as leaders of their companies, the World Meeting of Families should strongly consider removing their names from the website and published materials.  All of this information was sent to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but no response from the Archdiocese was provided by press time.