Catholic Church drops ACORN funding

BALTIMORE, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The Roman Catholic Church has halted donations to the community organizing group ACORN due to questionable voter registration drives, a church official says.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development cited, among other things, complaints about ACORN's registration drives leading up to the Nov. 4 election, CNN reported.

"We simply had too many questions and concerns to permit further CCHD funding of ACORN groups," Roger Morin, auxiliary bishop of New Orleans and campaign chairman, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Baltimore.

Morin said a church review completed in November found ACORN no longer met standards of further funding. He said the ban won't be lifted "until and unless it is clear that CCHD funds will not go to an organization that has engaged in unlawful activities or voter registration fraud."

ACORN contends it has tried to help head off election fraud and plans to continue discussions with the church over the matter.

The church had frozen ACORN contributions in June after officials reported that Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled nearly $1 million. The reported embezzlement goes back several years but was only recently revealed, CNN said.

The CCHD says it has donated more than $7.3 million to ACORN-related projects over the past decade.