Subject: Action against Catholic Charities, Aug. 14 at 12 noon
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 16:55:40 EDT

NEWS FROM AIDS-STATISTICS.COM 

August 12, 2000

For Immediate Release                                                         
             
Contact: Michael Petrelis
Phone: 415-621-6267

AIDS PATIENTS DEMAND G.A.O. AUDIT OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES;

WAS FEDERAL MONEY USED FOR COSMETIC SURGERY?

San Francisco, CA - AIDS patients and their advocates will hold a news 
conference at the headquarters of Catholic Charities, located at 814 Mission 
Street, near Fourth Street, on Monday, August 14 at 12 noon to demand 
increased accountability from the nonprofit AIDS service organization. The 
executive director of Catholic Charities resigned last week after spending 
thousands of dollars for lavish meals, laser hair removal and anti-wrinkle 
treatments.

Catholic Charities received slightly more than $1.5 million in federal Ryan 
White CARE Act funds during FY 2000 - 2001, ostensibly for direct care 
services to people with AIDS. Questions are being raised about whether Frank 
Hudson, the ousted chief of Catholic Charities, spent Ryan White dollars for 
his personal beauty treatments.

According to the August 11 San Francisco Chronicle The City's "Redevelopment 
Agency, calling Hudson's spending 'unconscionable,' reduced a contract with 
Catholic Charities to run residential treatment centers for HIV patients to 
$1 million from $2 million." The paper did not report how the one 
million-dollar cut for such centers will adversely impact people with AIDS.

"We are demanding Catholic Charities release its two most recent IRS 990 tax 
returns so we can probe how the agency handles all of its donations," said 
Michael Petrelis, an AIDS patient and spokesperson for the 
AIDS-Statistics.com web site.

"Congress must pay attention to how Catholic Charities uses Ryan White 
funding, and we won't be happy until the General Accounting Office performs 
an independent audit of the agency," Petrelis added. "A GAO audit of Catholic 
Charities is long overdue."

San Francisco currently receives so much Ryan White money per AIDS patient 
that the amount is double what any other city gets. Even with $38 million in 
Ryan White funds, many AIDS organizations in San Francisco have long waiting 
lists for services. However, no impediments exist to pay executive directors 
high six-figure salaries and provide them with extravagant expense accounts 
for first class dining and travel.

"We certainly have had a wake-up call," San Francisco Archbishop William 
Levada, head of Catholic Charities' board of directors, told the Chronicle. 
AIDS patients expect Congress to heed the wake-up call and investigate this 
agency.

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Michael Petrelis
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www.AIDS-statistics.com 
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114