Last week Creative Minority published a story about Ralph McCloud, the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, revealing that he served as the treasurer of a political campaign during his first year on the job at the USCCB.
The candidate, as it turns out, was an abortion supporter.
McCloud has responded, and Creative Minority has responded to his response. Let me summarize:
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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McCloud characterizes his role as treasurer in a Texas state senate campaign as “honorary.” He should have resigned his position when he took the USCCB job, but he “forgot.” And McCloud asserted he never knew that the candidate, Wendy Davis, was an abortion supporter.
Creative Minority responded by pointing out that even an honorary position in a campaign signals an unqualified endorsement for the candidate. CM asked how McCloud who served on the Ft. Worth city council with Davis for four years could not know her position on abortion.
On this point, CM was right to raise a question. After all, if McCloud is the kind of Catholic politician qualified to work for the bishops, shouldn’t he want to know that about a candidate he publicly supports?
That McCloud forgot to resign his position as treasurer when he came to Washington, D.C. to take a new job does not trouble me — everyone knows how difficult it is to relocate to another city.
But, as someone who has been involved in politics and campaigns for quite a while, I am acutely aware of a candidate’s position on abortion, especially if I am involved with them in any way. Thus, I find it very puzzling that McCloud knew nothing about the position of Wendy Davis on abortion when he knew her for many years and signed on to be her campaign treasurer.
As CM reported, Davis’s position on abortion, which was corroborated by the support of Planned Parenthood, was known to many at the time.