by CNA Staff

Brussels, Belgium, Jun 22, 2021 / 16:57 pm

The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) a group of European parliamentarians committed to compelling the recognition of abortion as a “human right” world-wide, is preparing a major political coup aimed at discrediting reputable Christian and human rights organizations which the group describes as “religious extremists” allegedly committed “to roll back human rights in sexuality and reproduction.”

Last week, EPF presented an “investigative report” called “Tip of the Iceberg: Religious Extremist Funders against Human Rights for Sexuality and Reproductive Health in Europe 2009 – 2018,” with the intention to influence a vote that would openly denounce pro-life organizations in the European Parliament. The EP vote is scheduled to take place in Brussels, at the EU headquarters, on Thursday, June 24th.

The document, signed by Neil Datta, Secretary of the EPF, claims to be an exposé of “54 anti-gender funding actors active in Europe as well as the main channels through which the religious extremists generate funding and how it circulates.”

According to the report, “the picture that emerges is of a transnational community of likeminded religious extremists and related alt- and far-right actors making strategic funding decisions across international borders.”

The long document lists countless organizations and individuals who they shame as “anti-gender” with little or no proof. In the chapter dedicated to the Catholic Church, the document criticizes the Vatican, some European Cardinals like Christoph Schönborn, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and several other organizations and individuals in no particular order.

According to the document, “here are several Catholic religious communities which advance anti-gender objectives and equally have financial weight;” they proceed to mention the Italian lay movement Communion and Liberation, Luca Volontè of the Novae Terrae Foundation, the US-based Knights of Columbus, the Chiaroscuro Fund, the Legionaries of Christ, “the Slim family of Mexico,” Opus Dei, the Lejeune Foundation, Spain’s Fundación Valores y Sociedad, Italy’s Movimento Per la Vita and Polish Redemptorist priest Tadeusz Rydzyk; CitizenGO, and finally, as a major revelation, “several Vatican officials” who “play direct roles in anti-gender initiatives.”

Other well established and reputable pro human rights organizations are also painted as “alt-right” institutions funneling millions of Euros into a pro-life, pro-family agenda.

Ironically, EPF is supported by the wealthiest organizations in the planet. EPF has an almost endless list of billion-dollar organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IPPF, the European Commission, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the Wallace Global Found, the MacArthur Foundation, the Summit Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation (one of the owners of Hewlett-Packard)

According to an early analysis of “Tip of the Iceberg” by the European Center for Law and Justice, “the report is long and very detailed. Among a mishmash of conservative US think tanks and Russian oligarchs it targets solid pro-life and pro-family groups, pro-life politicians (Gudrun Kugler and Anna Záborská), European Catholic families, think tanks (Hudson Institute, ECLJ, and Alliance Defending Freedom – ADF) and broadly the Catholic Church.”

The Center also points out that “the timing of this report is significant as it has been released in view of the upcoming vote at the European Parliament dedicated to sexual and reproductive rights.”

EPF has proposed an amendment stating that the EU: “…is concerned about the inclusion in the EU transparency register of organizations such as Ordo Iuris, ADF International, Alliance VITA, European Dignity Watch, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE), the One of Us European Federation for Life and Human Dignity, Profesionales por la Ética and World Youth Alliance Europe, which are thereby authorized to work openly with public institutions for the decline of women’s rights and SRHR (Note: Sexual and reproductive health and rights).”

If passed, the resolution would be the first massive blacklisting of human rights and Christian organizations in the European Union.