John Podesta's leaked emails caught Democrats dreaming up a "Catholic Spring" against the bishops.

A religious left group born inside Podesta's Center for American Progress has now announced it's shutting down.

And the reason it's dying tells you exactly who was paying for its brand of Catholicism.

Faith in Public Life Is Shutting Down October 31

Faith in Public Life will close its doors for good on October 31, 2026.

The writing was on the wall in August 2025, when the group laid off 90 percent of its staff and went from 19 employees to two.

CEO Jeanné Lewis blamed "inconsistent" funding opportunities and said leadership decided to "proactively close the organization."

Translation: the checks stopped clearing.

George Soros' Open Society Foundations had poured more than $2 million into the group between 2017 and 2021.

Presbyterian minister Jennifer Butler founded it in 2005 as an organizing hub for the religious left, and in 2024 she ran faith outreach for Kamala Harris' failed presidential campaign.

Now she's launched a new outfit called Faith in Democracy, pledging to "resist the religious right."

Same pitch, new letterhead.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue fought these people for two decades, and he isn't hiding how he feels about the funeral.

"I know I will be criticized for gloating. My critics are right – I am over the moon," Donohue wrote.

"Looks like it's all tricks and no treats this year," he added.

The Podesta Catholic Spring Emails That Exposed the Playbook

In February 2012, the Obama administration was forcing Catholic employers to cover contraception, and the bishops were fighting back.

That's when progressive activist Sandy Newman emailed Podesta with a plan.

"There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship," Newman wrote.

Podesta answered, "We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this."

WikiLeaks put that exchange in front of the whole country in 2016.

Catholics in Alliance and its sister group, Catholics United, were both launched in 2005, the same year as Faith in Public Life.

Donohue debated them and discredited them, and neither one exists anymore.

Their core sales pitch was a lie – that a faithful Catholic can be pro-abortion.

Faith in Public Life Fought the Bishops Over Biden and Communion

On June 7, 2012, Faith in Public Life activist John Gehring sent reporters a memo telling them what to ask the bishops during an upcoming run of religious liberty events.

Someone in the press leaked the memo to Donohue, he went public, and the scheme blew up.

The group saved its biggest fight for Joe Biden's first months in office.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who chaired the bishops' pro-life committee, said Biden "should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic, and acknowledge that his view on abortion is contrary to Catholic moral teaching."

Faithful America, the sister group operating under Faith in Public Life's letterhead, answered with a petition demanding Naumann be removed as pro-life chairman.

Petitioners complained he was "far more critical of the new president than he ever was of Donald Trump."

Faithful Catholics didn't take the bait.

CatholicVote's counter-petition backing Naumann drew nearly 11,000 signatures in 24 hours, with Marjorie Dannenfelser, Abby Johnson, and Ryan T. Anderson signing on.

That June, as the bishops debated whether pro-abortion politicians should receive Communion, Faith in Public Life circulated a letter with more than 800 signers telling them to "stop playing politics with Communion."

"A holy sacrament should never be weaponized for political ends," the letter declared.

Gehring was listed as a press contact.

CatholicVote's Josh Mercer put it plainly: "Groups like these are not authentically Catholic but explicitly created to manipulate believers."

Why the Soros-Funded Religious Left Lost Its Pro-Abortion Catholic Cover

The Catholic League runs on donations from rank-and-file Catholics in the pews.

Faith in Public Life ran on foundation grants from Washington power players.

When the big money walked, there was nobody left to hold the group up.

Since 2005, these groups gave pro-abortion Democrats a priceless gift – a Catholic-sounding voice saying the Church's teaching on unborn life was optional.

That cover is disappearing just as abortion fights move to state ballots, where Catholic voters can decide whether babies are protected.

Every pro-life Catholic who shows up to vote without a Soros-funded group muddying the message is a win for the unborn.

The bishops who defended life are still here, and so are the families in the pews who never bought the lie.

Watch Jennifer Butler's new group, because the religious left never quits – it just changes names.

Sources:

• Bill Donohue, "Phony Pro-Abortion 'Catholic' Group Is Shutting Down," LifeNews, September 25, 2026.
• Tyler O'Neil, "CatholicVote Raises Alarm About Leftist Groups 'Created to Manipulate Believers,'" The Daily Signal, September 21, 2026.
• Kevin Jones, "Leaked Emails Show Clinton Campaign Head Discussing 'Revolution' Against Bishops," Catholic News Agency, October 14, 2016.
• Jim Graves, "Abp. Naumann: Pres. Biden 'Should Stop Defining Himself as a Devout Catholic,'" Catholic World Report, February 13, 2021.
• CV News Feed, "Pro-Life Catholics Defend Bishop From 'Cancel-Culture,'" CatholicVote, March 28, 2021.
• Faith in Public Life, "Catholic Leaders Urge Bishops to Stop Playing Politics With Communion," Faith in Public Life, June 16, 2021.