The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has hired forensic accounting
specialists to investigate more than $1 million in church funding to
voter-registration group ACORN, fearing the money may have been spent in
partisan or fraudulent ways that could jeopardize the church's tax-exempt
status.

The investigation is "thorough, serious and ongoing," according to a July 11
letter to more than 200 bishops from New Orleans Bishop Robert Morin, chairman
of the committee that oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development...