Conference cuts funding for ACORN

I must admit, some of this ACORN stuff during the election went over my head. But now it looks as though the organization is going to be hurt financially from the controversy.

A group of Catholic Bishops have decided to cut funding to ACORN, because of the embezzlement and fraud charges against them. ACORN does a lot anti-poverty work in communities around the nation and provides advocacy for the poor.

As Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe reports, the cuts in funding amount to a million a year.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is permanently cutting off all funding for ACORN in the wake of an embezzlement scandal and allegations of voter registration fraud and political partisanship.

The national nonprofit, with more than 1,200 local affiliates, attempts to organize low-income people to advocate for improvement in their communities.

Bishop Roger P. Morin of New Orleans said yesterday that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an antipoverty program run by the bishops' conference, decided that it could no longer be certain of ACORN's integrity or accountability. The bishops had been giving $1.1 million a year to 41 ACORN affiliates.

"We simply had too many continuing questions and concerns about these serious matters to permit any further funding of ACORN groups," Morin said.

Steve Kest, the executive director of ACORN, said last night that he would wait until he hears from the bishops before making any comment.

Right now ACORN is on the top of our list on the "Get Involved Links" only because it's alphabetical. What do you think? Are these charges serious? Serious enough that we should remove the link? Or is it all hysteria?