Update: Thomas D. Williams at Breitbart now has a report on the Soros donations, based on the Sirico essay.

George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center recently had a large set of documents exposed by the international organization, WikiLeaks. It turns out that these documents revealed information of how Mr. Soros’ organization made large monetary donations to two faith-based organizations in the amount of $650,000. Acton Institute president, Acton’s Rev. Robert Sirico talks about the Open Society Policy Center leaks and the significance of these donations in a recent article for the Washington Times. Sirico says:

On their surface, the donations seem benign. As the president of a less-activist and nonpartisan group, I understand that it takes money to disseminate an organization’s ideas to people of faith. What’s disconcerting is the crass political intention to manipulate church leaders that is evident from the leaked documents. One gets the impression thatMr. Sorosand his fellow travelers view the leadership of the munity generally and the Catholic Church in particular as mere useful idiots to be manipulated to further their own political and, frankly, secularist agenda.

What doesn’t make sense about these donations is why a faith-based organization would take money from someone who, “judging byMr. Soros’ various charitable enterprises, see the Catholic Church and other traditional religious groups as a great part of the social problem they seek to eradicate.”

Father Sirico continues in his article, explaining some of the specific details from the leaked documents and how Soros was deliberately using religious groups and the Catholic Church as a means to promote a very political agenda. The article concludes with Sirico saying:

This isn’t education. It’s political manipulation in order to focus the Catholic Church onMr. Soros‘ political agenda; a well-funded, cynical effort to exploit the faithful to achieve dubious moral and political ends.

Mr. Sorosshould be condemned for using his money in this way, and the faith-based organizations that took it should be ashamed.

You can read Sirico’s full article on the Washington Times here.