Investigative Organizations Release Report on Abuse in Catholic Aid Program

The Population Research Institute, in collaboration with the Lepanto Institute, has released a 56 page report as the result of an investigation into Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Kenya. The report highlights programs implemented under a CRS project in Kenya which facilitated and endorsed contraceptive-use. CRS is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States.

The joint investigation includes both online evidence and documentation from a field investigator who spent a month and half interviewing persons in Kenya. The online evidence documents governmental reports and sub-partners’ websites to corroborate the field investigation. The field investigator interviewed a broad range of sources in order to cross-reference and verify the interviewees’ statements. 

Steven Mosher, the president of Population Research Institute stated, “CRS must explain to its Catholic donors why, according to the numerous Kenyans we interviewed, it funds, oversees, and monitors programs which endorse contraceptive use.” 

The Population Research Institute released a report in 2013 documenting similar abuses under CRS programs in Madagascar. CRS did not enact any substantial structural reforms following the 2013 report. 

“PRI has been trying for months to address these concerns through appropriate channels.” Mosher stated. “We are now making our findings public in the hope that CRS will speedily enact credible reforms to ensure that such abuses never happen again.”

Mosher added, “We recommend that the USCCB establish a review committee of outside experts to review all CRS programs, including representatives from countries like Kenya which have been adversely affected, to enact needed reforms.” To view the full report online, visit

https://www.pop.org/content/kenya-examination

The Population Research Institute has over 25 years of experience of documenting abuses and enacting reform in foreign aid programs. 

Press contact: Anne Roback Morse: [email protected], (540) 660-2733

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