Sorostown

The self-described “Catholic” group protesting Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R., Wis.) speech at Georgetown University Thursday has ties to the Obama administration and left-wing advocacy groups funded by liberal billionaire George Soros. The protest, which aims to critique Ryan’s “attacks on the poor” and will feature a 50-foot banner reading “Were You There When They Crucified The Poor?” is part of a broader effort to portray the Republican budget as a fundamentally anti-Catholic document heading into the 2012 election season. Catholics United, the group leading the protest, describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition.” Judging from the organization funding Catholics United, however, the group’s partisan leanings are clear. The Soros-funded Tides Foundation has given $65,000 to the organization since 2007, and has given nearly $200,000 to the affiliated group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Another Soros-funded group, the Open Society Institute, has given $450,000 to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good since 2005. Catholic League president Bill Donohue dismissed Catholics United as a “Soros-funded front group” created for the sole purpose of promoting liberal policies that is completely out-of-touch with the teachings of the Catholic Church. “They don’t have legitimate membership,” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “But every election year they get resurrected.” A May 2010 report in the Washington Times noted that Catholics United was one of many left-wing religious organizations established during the 2004 election season in an effort to counter traditionally conservative groups.

Link (here) to Washington Free Beacon