The Lepanto Institute

The Lepanto Institute is a U.S. Catholic lay organisation that publishes investigations into Catholic charities, health systems and Church-funded programmes. Its president is Michael Hichborn. In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025, the Institute stated that it was founded in October 2014 and organised as a Virginia nonprofit the following January. The brief describes it as a lay apostolate defending Catholic principles in Catholic charitable institutions (amicus brief).

Catholic Relief Services. Much of the Institute's work concerns Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops' overseas aid agency, which it has accused for a decade of involvement with programmes that promote contraception (Lepanto Institute). With the Population Research Institute (PRI), it presented a report on CRS projects in Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Lesotho on 6 March 2024 (ACI Africa). The report concluded that CRS was complicit in promoting condoms and contraception through federally funded projects (LifeSiteNews; Lepanto Institute). CRS rejected the accusations as unfounded (ACI Prensa); PRI said CRS answered with a "blanket denial" (PRI).

CRS and bishops have repeatedly rejected the allegations. In 2015 CRS responded to one complaint (Catholic Culture). In 2020 it said it was reviewing claims that partner materials conflicted with Church teaching (Crux). In 2021 Bishop Frank Caggiano, chairman of the CRS board, wrote to fellow bishops that "certain provocateurs spread false allegations about CRS", as quoted in the Institute's reply (Lepanto Institute).

Other reports. A 64-page Lepanto report on the CommonSpirit Health system questioned services at its non-Catholic hospitals. The National Catholic Register's coverage of it also noted a 2016 correction CRS had issued against an earlier Lepanto claim (National Catholic Register/CNA). In November 2021 the Institute released a report on what it described as papal support for Communists (Catholic Family News).