WASHINGTON, D.C., October 12, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A new batch of leaked e-mails from within the Clinton campaign surfaced Wednesday, showing her campaign chair John Podesta admitting to helping launch a “progressive” group to infiltrate the Church, and taking an active role in provoking a liberal Catholic revolt against the U.S. Bishops.

In the e-mail, Podesta responds to a leftist activist’s call for a “Catholic Spring” against the U.S. Bishops over their opposition to the HHS contraception mandate.

In his response, Podesta indicates how so-called “Catholic” groups agitating for change in the Church were formed to assist the movement to undermine the Church’s teaching, but reveals that at the time proper leadership was not yet in place to accomplish this.

“We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this,” Podesta writes. “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.”

Podesta’s correspondent, Center for Progress President Sandy Newman, had written:

Hi John. This whole controversy with the bishops opposing contraceptive coverage even though 98% of Catholic women (and their conjugal partners) have used contraception has me thinking … 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.

The subject line of the February 2012 e-mail exchange read, “opening for a Catholic Spring? Just musing …”

In his e-mail Newman ponders exploiting the U.S. Bishops’ opposition to the Mandate and he asks whether the Catholic Health Association (CHA) might side with “progressives” in their offensive against the Church.

“Is contraceptive coverage an issue around which that could happen,” Newman asks Podesta. “The Bishops will undoubtedly continue the fight. Does the Catholic Hospital Association support of the Administration's new policy, together with ‘the 98%’ create an opportunity?”

The CHA infamously opposed the USCCB in its stand against the controversial Mandate forcing religious employers to provide subsidized birth control and sterilization to its employees in violation of their religious principles, with Barack Obama citing the CHA’s support earlier this year to defend the federal government’s case against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

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This latest round of leaked emails from Clinton associates showing bias against the Catholic Church came in the third release of Podesta’s emails by WikiLeaks.

Also among the newest group of emails was evidence of Clinton campaign staffers and supporters denigrating Catholic beliefs as “backwards” and saying conservative Catholics’ beliefs represent “an amazing bastardization of the faith.”

Podesta also conceded in one of the emails that at the time she made the April 2015 announcement her run for the presidency Hillary Clinton had “begun to hate everyday Americans.”

Newman, who is Jewish, admits in the “Catholic Spring” email to Podesta that he has limited familiarity with the Catholic Church, Lifezette reports, and while he does not personally offer to subvert Catholic teachings, Newman presumes the Catholic hierarchy uses financial pressure to coerce its institutions, and nonetheless floats the idea of "plant(ing) the seeds of the revolution" in the Church.

“Of course, this idea may just reveal my total lack of understanding of the Catholic church, the economic power it can bring to bear against nuns and priests who count on it for their maintenance, etc.” he writes to Podesta. “Even if the idea isn't crazy, I don't qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would "plant the seeds of the revolution," or who would plant them. Just wondering . . .”

The entire exchange between Podesta and Newman is below:

From:[email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: 2012-02-11 11:45

Subject: Re: opening for a Catholic Spring? just musing . . .

We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. 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. I'll discuss with Tara. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the other person to consult.

On 2/10/12, Sandy Newman <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi, John,

This whole controversy with the bishops opposing contraceptive coverage even though 98% of Catholic women (and their conjugal partners) have used contraception has me thinking . . . 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. Is contraceptive coverage an issue around which that could happen. The Bishops will undoubtedly continue the fight. Does the Catholic Hospital Association support of the Administration's new policy, together with "the 98%" create an opportunity?

Of course, this idea may just reveal my total lack of understanding of the Catholic church, the economic power it can bring to bear against nuns and priests who count on it for their maintenance, etc. Even if the idea isn't crazy, I don't qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would "plant the seeds of the revolution," or who would plant them. Just wondering . . .

Hoping you're well, and getting to focus your time in the ways you want.

Sandy

Sandy Newman, President

Voices for Progress

202.669.8754

voicesforprogress.org