The pro-abortion Ford Foundation has contributed nearly $2 million to a Catholic missionary's council for indigenous peoples run by the Bishops Conference of Brazil since 2006, The National Catholic Register (NCR) disclosed Friday.
The newspaper's Rome correspondent, Edward Pentin, cited the work of Brazilian journalist Bernardo Küster, who discovered that the Ford Foundation funds have gone to the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM).
Established in 2014 in Brasilia, Brazil, REPAM was organized by bishops' conference of Latin America (CELAM) and Caritas. The network has a leading role in the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, which ends Oct. 27.
The assembly includes bishops from territories that include Amazon regions; priests and missionaries of congregations who work in the Amazonian jungle; national representatives of Caritas; and laypeople belonging to different church bodies.
The Ford Foundation, established in New York in 1936 by Henry Ford and his son, Edsel, had assets of $12.5 billion in 2014, according to the NCR report.
Despite its programs focusing on education, science and other social concerns, the foundation is "well known for its overt support for abortion rights and gender ideology," the report says, and is "a vocal supporter of gender ideology and LGBT activism."
But Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, Brazil, head of the Missionary Council for Indigenous Peoples (CIMI), did not deny receiving Ford funding when asked by NCR.
Paloschi said the contributions were investigated and cleared by Brazilian government officials.
"We already know the numbers that appear on the Internet," he said. "They're out there."
He said CIMI's financial data were "public and undergo internal and external financial auditing by the Brazilian government."
Further, CIMI is "connected to the Brazilian bishops," Paloschi said, adding that they "don't have any disagreement about working together — but we do not exchange resources."
NCR cited data obtained from the Ford Foundation's grant's database.
Nicole Okai, a Ford Foundation spokeswoman, told NCR that the organization's mission was to "address inequality in all its forms" and support "low-income, rural, and indigenous communities in the global South" to help stem climate change.
She observed that where local Amazonian communities are protected and deforestation is lower, "there is less conflict and women are safer."
According to the foundation's grant database, the Indigenous Council of Roraima, a local CIMI branch, received $1,164,906 from Ford between 2006 and 2018, NCR reports.
Roraima, in the northernmost part of Brazil, is one of the country's largest regions and the richest in the Amazon in terms of resources.
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