WEBVTT

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Bill cunning into Great America. Welcome
this laurious Monday afternoon in the tri State.

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Coming up later, we'll be an
expert on the southern border. Also,

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someone from Afghanistan is going to talk
about how the isis K has reinstituted

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itself in Afghanistan and they were behind
the bombing and the killing of one hundred

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and seventy five Russians. And I
saw in court this morning the four individuals

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involved, and I'm not sure the
Russian security forces read them their miranda rights.

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One guide didn't have an ear that
was chopped off and fed to them,

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and three others were beaten to within
an inch of their life. And

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that's a failure again of the Biden
administration to do what it did in Afghanistan,

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and so much more. And of
course Reds Baseball kicks off on Thursday

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about to five am and continues until
at least midnight and maybe beyond. But

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until then, as you may know, there are several non government organizations called

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NGOs that assist in the assimilation of
those who show up at their door from

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whether immigration or not is not a
status that to be determined. And Catholic

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Charities of Southwest Ohio is one of
those mngos along with many others including the

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Urban League and Salvation Army to transition
from where they these immigrants where they were

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to where they're going to be in
the future. And Tony Stewart is the

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CEO of Catholic Charities of Southwest Ohio. Tony Stewart, welcome, I think

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for the first time to the Bill
Cunningham Show. And first of all,

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can you inform the American people what
is the mission of Catholic Charities of Southwest

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Ohio. Sure, Bill, thanks
for having me on. Catholic Charity Southwestern

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Ohio's mission is to serve empower people
in their times of vulnerability through God's love.

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We do this through a wide range
of programming that is all focused in

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our local communities. What kind of
specific help do you give the immigration community.

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Can to be specific about food,
housing, clothing, work requirements,

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things of that character. Sure.
Well, first, let me just share

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that Catholic Charities has a wide variety
of programs, so we serve nearly twenty

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thousand people a year of from all
backgrounds and ages, from early childhood to

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older age, whether that's through food
pantries, mental health programming, parenting education,

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family support efforts, seniors and caregiver
supports, and a collection of our

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programs are related to migrants, specifically
to provide humanitarian assistance to those who come

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through our doors. But when I
read some of the commentators online, there

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has been some suggestion that Catholic Charities, along with many other NGOs, are

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an attraction allure that illegal immigrants are
encouraged to come here because there are social

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welfare agencies such as Catholic Charity.
He's funded in part by the federal government

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to provide these services that but for
Catholic Charities this a large influx of illegal

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immigrants now called newcomers would not exist. Is that true? I would say

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absolutely not. The situation of migration
is an issue that needs to be dealt

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with through Congress and through the administration. We essentially serve whoever comes through our

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doors, regardless of their backgrounds,
and I could certainly attest that nobody is

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coming to our particular area just because
we exist as an agency. There are

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many organizations within the Greater Cincinnati area
that serve whoever comes through their doors,

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say Vinci to Paul, other food
pantries that just serve people. They as

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they need through their humanitarian needs.
And we don't have a role in how

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people get here, so we don't
try to recruit or have any role,

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and who's coming through the border or
other locations, we simply serve them when

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they arrive here. Does the federal
government pay Catholic charities? Some have used

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the term a boatload of money to
do this and it's a money maker for

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Catholic charities? Is that true or
false? That is also false. We

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do receive funds, yes, from
the federal government, to do very specific

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programming that is related to migrants.
The two programs that we receive as an

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agency, one is our refugee Resettlement
program. This is a program that's been

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operating a broad daylighte for decades now, since the Vietnam War, essentially to

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resettle a handful of refugees, most
of whom who've been languishing in refugee camps

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for many, many years, to
come over for resettlement. In a given

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year. We'll settle a few hundred
families in a year, and this is

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done through a contract with the federal
government. But to say that it's a

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body maker, I can certainly declare
that it does not. It doesn't even

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pay the bills for the program.
We rely on a great deal of private

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contributions from the community, people who
want to be a part of this mission,

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and many many volunteers. We have
over eight hundred volunteers a year that

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work with ussy Catholic charities and many
in kind donations furniture, just clothing.

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We hobble together a lot of resources
to make these programs work. The funds

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that we get from the federal government
to help with the refugee resettlement program don't

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cover the whole thing. The people
who are doing this work are essentially social

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workers who could certainly be making more
money I imagine working some other place in

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the for profit world. So these
are people who are doing this because they

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love the mission, they love helping
other people. They want to see the

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Gospel put into action. The other
program that we run that receive some federal

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support is are case management for unaccompanied
children. So those kids that the federal

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government determines, for whatever reason,
to be placed at a household and about

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a two hundred mile radius around Cincinnati. What they are placed here, we

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receive notification and are asked to provide
some basic case management services to ensure that

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the kids are safe, that they're
not being exploited, that they're not victims

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of human trafficking. We just try
to provide some basic case management to make

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sure these kids are okay. Well, one of your essentially what we do.

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One of your guys told me that
in reality, Catholic Charities of Southwest

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Ohio is financially unconnected to other Catholic
Charities groups around the country, and that

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if the money from the Feds did
not come for the refugee resettlement or the

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case management of children, if that
didn't exist at all, Catholic Charities financially

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would be in better shape. So
you don't make money on this. Is

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that fair to say, yes,
we don't make money on this at all.

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I mean, we couldn't run those
programs without the federal support, but

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we're certainly not making any money off
of it. And we couldn't run those

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programs if we didn't have a number
of other supports, people who want to

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be a part of the effort and
help make it all happen. But that

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is also true that we operate independently
of all the other Catholic Charities agencies in

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the country. Catholic Charities is an
entity of the local dioceses at which they

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exist. So we do, of
course support each other at our mission to

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promote the Gospel and to help those
in need. That's why we exist.

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But we operate completely independent of each
other, and our sole mission is to

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support the poor and vulnerable in our
local communities. That is entirely our focus.

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Let's say Tony Bender shows up from
Yugoslavia. He's got a wife and

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three kids, and he shows up
at Catholic charities kind of walk us through

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the intake process. English is the
second or third or fourth language. He

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can speak fluent to fluent Romanian.
That's about it, and does he work,

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does explain the process. So when
Tony Bender shows up from Yugoslavia,

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what happens? Yeah, Well,
really, the types of services that a

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viagrant could receive really depends upon their
status. So if an emmigrant family has

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no particular migrant status that we,
like anybody, would just provide some basic

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humanitarian assistance, food, clothing,
just whatever support they might need and not

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even know, honestly, if we
wouldn't even ask those questions, If that's

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just the kind of service that they
would need, do you make them work.

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I mean a lot of people say, well, you're on the public

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dole in a sense, although this
is private and you don't have to work.

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How do you take someone and say, you've got to be self supporting,

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you've got to function, and this
isn't a place for you to live

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the rest of your life. How
do you get how do you transition them

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out of Catholic charities? Sure,
so, if an immigrant is coming as

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a refugee, it does have a
status where they're allowed to work, for

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instance, and we were bringing them
in or they were brought to us as

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a refugee for us to resettle,
then we're going to provide a comprehensive resettlement

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process for them with volunteers and SOOL
classes, job readiness support, whatever we

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could do to help them integrate fully
into the American society and to be contributing

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members of our communities. And I
would highly state that we have a high

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success rate and the refugees that we've
worked with have well established themselves in many

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ways and are building a better Cincinnati
for all of us. So this started

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more than a half a century ago
with the Vietnam situation, and the last

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two or three years there's been some
hot white lamps on the whole process.

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And you're saying, and you know
where the bodies are buried. You've been

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at this for a long time.
You're the CEO of Catholic Charities of Southwest

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Ohio, and everything you're telling me
is Number one, Catholic Charities doesn't make

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any money on this at all.
It's not a big money maker. Number

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Two, it's run by essentially hundreds
of social workers and others assisting these communities.

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And number three, the goal is
to get them from where they are,

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which is in need, to where
they're not in need, which might

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take six months, a year,
two years, or three years. And

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then there's another influx. Have you
noticed an influx the last year or two

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of additional refugees from many parts of
the world, that is an uptick of

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the need that you have. Yeah, well, no, you're right.

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I think you defied our work very
well there. And you know, we've

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seed a variety of waves come through
in recent years. So, for one,

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the Afghanistan situation, you know when
the Taliban horrifically took over that country

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and Afghans were being evacuated out of
any of those Afghans that were ended up

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in Cincinnati for whatever reason. You
know, we had no say and who

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would come here, but those that
the federal government determined would end up in

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Cincinnati. We helped them resettle and
get their new lives started, and it's

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really exciting just to see where they
are about two years, two and a

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half years later. The Ukrainians would
be another example of leeing the war of

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course with Russia, and our support
for them as they try to make a

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new life at least until their country
is hopefully a peaceful place again. So

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we seed ways like that where we've
been directly involved in helping people build new

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lives here locally. And Tony start
about the children. One of the worst

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things about what's happening on the collapse
of our southern border is literally hundreds of

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thousands of children from newborns to fifteen
sixteen years old that are being sexually trafficked

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all over the place. They might
be working in sweatshops sixteen hours a day.

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Farming communities may take them and force
these children to work, and that

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is am I fair to say,
that is not what Catholic charities does.

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What Catholic charity stops the human trafficking
and exploitation. It doesn't incentivize it explain

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that process. That's absolutely right,
Bill, I mean that's the tragedy is

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that kids who are migrating on their
own, who are left vulnerable, whoever

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would want to prey on them or
exploit them. The lack I think of

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an orderly and humane immigration system,
which is a federal problem, is what's

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causing a lot of this. But
we try to pick up the pieces,

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and so when we have the capacity
to provide some case management, to keep

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an eye on these kids, make
sure we know where they are, that

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we could report that they're safe,
that they're they're in a school, someplace,

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that they aren't being sex trafficked.
I mean, that's the space that

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we want to be in to protect
these children as much as we possibly can.

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So, Tony Stewart, as far
as you're aware, once an unaccompanied

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child gets to Southwest Ohio Catholic Charities, to your knowledge, has any of

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those children been sex trafficked or used
or abused in any fashion to your knowledge,

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to my knowledge, no, anybody
who is on our case role,

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we're we're the ones that are trying
to make sure that that does not happen.

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Tony Stewart, thank you for setting
the record straight. And what is

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your website? If those listening to
our dulcet tones now this Monday afternoon want

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to assist in some way to provide
goods or services or volunteer labor, whatever

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it might be. What is your
website? Sure, it's ccsw o h

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dot org. Invite people to see
more what we do and certainly to get

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involved. You know, we at
Catholic Charity see ourselves as a large family

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of staff, volunteers, supporters,
partners in the community who all want to

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build a greater Cincinnati and together I
think we're doing that. You know.

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One thing I've assisted over the years
are pregnancy centers, in which women that

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are in crisis when they're pregnant can
go to a pregnancy center and they have

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a case worker. There's reasons a
sonogram might be shown, this is your

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baby, this is what the baby
looks like. You're a healthy mom,

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you have a healthy unborn baby,
and pregnancy centers step up and say,

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Okay, what do you need?
How can we help you? Is that

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the similar philosophy of Catholic charities?
Yeah, I mean I would say that

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we very much work in concert with
many pregnancy care centers and certainly support them

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in the mission in the Gospel command
to protect human life from conception until natural

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death. You know, we we
do this together for the community where the

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pregnancy sitters just do amazing work helping
mothers in need and saving on board life.

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We we like to support them in
other ways through our humanitarian assistance to

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those moms, to provide mental health
counseling wherever we can to those women I

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need. So we were really in
this together. Catholic Charities to Southwest Ohio,

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Tony Stewart. No relation to the
great NASCAR driver to my knowledge or

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your knowledge. Is that correct?
To my knowledge? Note you wish you

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were, but nonetheless Catholic Charities to
southwester Whiow and Tony Stewart. Seriously,

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thank you for setting the record straight
this afternoon. Thank you, Thank you

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Bill for having me on. And
God bless and God bless America. Let's

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continue with more if a line becomes
available five and three, seven four nine,

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seven thousand or pounds seven hundred,
Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred wlwle

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any God, why so your card