by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
President Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk has received a great deal of media attention.
Personally, I am grateful for the president’s efforts to address fraud and waste within our federal government. The biggest threat to our country and its essential programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is the extraordinarily high level of federal debt.
The United States is considered the wealthiest nation in the world. Yet, in my humble opinion, our economic health is fragile. Our country carries a debt of more than $36 trillion, and this past year we added $2 trillion dollars more to the debt. Paying the interest on our current debt is the second largest item in our government’s budget. This is not economically sustainable.
For the past several decades, the Catholic Church in the United States has partnered with our federal government in our shared international and domestic goals. Catholic Relief Services has received federal grants to feed the hungry, provide quality medical care and develop healthy water sources for impoverished countries. Sadly, our government has also partnered with other groups that attempted to impose woke U.S. cultural values — e.g., abortion, contraception, transgender and LGBTQ ideologies upon poor nations. DOGE discovered and exposed several of the insane and harmful programs that were being funded by our country’s foreign aid programs.
Similarly, the Catholic Church in the United States has partnered for more than 40 years with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). The Catholic Church in the United States has been serving refugee and immigrant communities well before our government provided public funding. In 1948, more than 30 years before the government’s Refugee Admissions Program, 90% of Catholic dioceses had a resettlement director appointed by the local bishop to serve refugees.
The U.S. Congress passed the Refugee Act in 1980 that established USRAP, codifying a legal process by which refugees, those who have fled their country because they fear persecution, are resettled in the United States. Any person resettled in the United States through USRAP first undergoes an intensive screening and vetting process in order to be approved and legally admitted by the U.S. government while outside the United States. These refugees receive medical evaluations, a cultural orientation and other services that maximize their ability to integrate successfully and contribute productively to American society.
The Catholic Church began partnering with the federal government on USRAP when it was created in 1980. The U.S. Conference of Bishops serves as one of 10 national resettlement agencies that work with local community-based organizations to receive those approved by the government for resettlement. Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas has worked with the U.S. bishops conference to resettle refugees in the Kansas City area. Catholic Charities helps refugees find housing, employment and health care, and to continue their successful integration into American society.
The Catholic Church does not financially profit from either its foreign aid partnership with the government or its domestic refugee resettlement program. In reality, we add financial resources to these government programs through the generous donations of Catholics to Catholic Relief Services and to Catholic Charities. We provide services both internationally and domestically more efficiently and effectively than the U.S. government can on its own.
The church has entered these partnerships with the government because these federal grants increased our financial ability to serve the poor internationally as well as provide our domestic care for refugees. These partnerships in recent years have become complicated. Some U.S. administrations have threatened to withhold funding because of our refusal to support and facilitate abortion, distribution of contraception, and support for transgender and LGBTQ ideologies.
You may have read that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is suing the federal government for failing to reimburse the church for services that we have already provided to refugees consistent with our agreed-upon partnership with the U.S. government. Catholic Relief Services has been forced to lay off half of its employees, because of the withholding of government foreign aid reimbursement.
Despite the absence of government funding, the Catholic Church in the United States through Catholic Relief Services will continue to strive to provide food, clean water and medical care to the poor throughout the world. Catholic Relief Services will continue to be an arm of the Catholic Church in the United States that will provide disaster relief to countries experiencing hurricanes, earthquakes, war and other catastrophic events.
In the archdiocese, each year during Lent we take up a collection to support Catholic Relief Services and its important work. If you have never given to Catholic Relief Services before, this is the moment to begin. If you have given to Catholic Relief Services historically, this is a year to increase your donation.
With our nation retreating from helping the poor throughout the world, this is a time when it is critical for U.S. Catholics to increase our efforts to bring the love of Jesus Christ to those in need. By donating to Catholic Relief Services, you can be assured that your gift will not be used for some of the absurd and harmful projects that our government has supported in the past.
I also encourage you to consider making a special donation to Catholic Charities in Northeast Kansas as we will continue our efforts to help newly arrived refugees. In doing so, you will be responding to Our Lord’s request that we care for those most in need by welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless. We serve others — not because they are Catholic, but because we are Catholic.
Finally, please pray for the healing and recovery of Pope Francis, the Successor of St. Peter. Catholics throughout the world look to the pope as our spiritual father. Let us pray also for those entrusted with his medical care. May God use them as his healing instruments!
I am saddened that Archbishop Naumann chooses to parrot MAGA talking points. For example, when I came across “…groups that attempted to impose woke U.S. cultural values…”.
Come on, Archbishop…please do better.
Really curious how you scrutinize the lies of DOGE and Vice President Vance when it claims our Church profits from the federal government and refugee re-settlement: But claims of the government partnering “with other groups that attempted to impose woke U.S. cultural values — e.g., abortion, contraception, transgender and LGBTQ ideologies upon poor nation” are taken at face value and with tacit acceptance for cutting off billions of dollars in aide for the sick and poor. Christ does not care about the imaginary lines we’ve drawn around this planet.
Thank you, Archbishop, for your common sense approach in your article referencing the good work of DOGE. We are also grateful for the president’s efforts to address fraud and waste within our federal government.