Clinton campaign chairman plotted "revolution" in Catholic Church

Jardine Malado Friday, October 14, 2016

John Podesta, president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress, attends the National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington October 29, 2011. | REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

A newly leaked email revealed that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta helped create a new organization to start a "Catholic Spring" in the Catholic Church.

In the 2012 email, Voices for Progress President Sandy Newman lamented the Catholic bishop's opposition to contraceptive coverage and suggested that a "Catholic Spring" was needed to bring about change in the Church's policies.

"There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church," Newman wrote.

In response, Podesta assured her that an organization has already been created to resolve the situation.

"We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this," Podesta replied. "But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up," he added.

According to Catholic Herald, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) was established in 2005 by Tom Pereillo. The group has been described by critics as a "Trojan Horse" for those seeking to undermine Catholic doctrines.

Fred Rotondaro, who serves as the organization's chairman, wrote an article for the Huffington Post in 2011 in which he questioned the Church's policy of not ordaining women priests.

The other group mentioned by Podesta, Catholics United, was created by Democrat activists Chris Korzen and James Salt in 2005. It criticized bishops for denying Communion to politicians who supported abortion.

In another leaked email, Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri and Center for American Progress President John Halpin criticized Catholics who were involved in the conservative movement.

Halpin mocked Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thompson and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch for raising their children in the Catholic faith.

"They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy," Halpin wrote, referring to Thompson and Murdoch.