Faithful Catholics have been saddened by the allegations — most recently suggested by Vice President JD Vance — that their Church has been complicit in creating the humanitarian crisis at the border. Vance pointed out that the Catholic Church has received over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants. Much of that money has been spent on providing transportation and housing for newly arrived illegal immigrants and helping to resettle them from the border to the interior of the country.
This collaboration with the Democratic Party continues today as the federal government pays for most of the activities of Catholic Charities.
I share Vance’s concern because Catholic Charities has been a long time recipient of our family’s philanthropic giving for decades. My sister, Marie Hopkins, served on the Board of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Hartford for 22 years, and when she died two years ago, our family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford. Likewise, when her husband died last September, our family asked again that friends and family donate to Catholic Charities.
As a Catholic family, we had always believed in the mission of Catholic Charities to help families in need, provide support for women experiencing crisis pregnancies, facilitate adoption and foster parenting, feed the hungry and house the homeless — and welcome refugees fleeing persecution. Created in 1910, on the campus of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Catholic Charities was launched to provide a centralized anti-poverty effort of individual parishes and dioceses in strengthening families and encouraging moral behavior as an important way to address poverty.
This noble goal began to change in the 1960s when Catholic Charities began to shift its focus from personal responsibility and individual behavior to blaming capitalism for poverty and crime. The Catholic agency began to look to the government’s emerging welfare state to solve all social problems.
Catholic Charities Adopt Progressivism
By 1972, the progressivism of Catholic Charities was codified in the Cadre Report which redefined the mission of Catholic Charities from one of direct service to the poor toward a more active role in addressing the root causes of poverty. Unfortunately, the root causes of crime, poverty, homelessness, and family dysfunction came to be defined as capitalism itself and Catholic Charities began its advocacy role in collaboration with the Democrat Party.
While the 1972 Cadre Report is not available online, City Journal editor Brian Anderson described it in an extensively researched article titled “How Catholic Charities Lost Its Soul.” https://www.city-journal.org/
the wild-eyed manifesto that invokes such radical sixties icons as Malcolm X, Gloria Steinem, Herbert Marcuse, and above all, the Marxist inspired Liberation Theology movement that equates Jesus with Che Guevara. Ratified at Catholic Charities’ annual meeting in 1972, the so-called Cadre Study totally abandoned any stress on personal responsibility in relation to poverty and other social ills.
Instead it painted America as an unjust numb country whose oppressive society and closed economy cause people to turn to crime or drugs or prostitution … individual acts of charity are useless. We must instead unearth the root causes of poverty and oppression and radically reconstruct — humanize and transform — the social order to avert social upheaval.
This collaboration with the Democratic Party continues today as the federal government pays for most of the activities of Catholic Charities — and nearly all of the Democratic-driven refugee resettlement activity. More than two-thirds of the Catholic Charities budget today is provided by the federal government. Until JD Vance mentioned this, few in Congress appear to have noticed that Catholic Charities seemed to have become an arm of the Democratic Party.
In 1996, then-Senator Rick Santorum brought some attention to Catholic Charities activities in an article he published in National Review titled “But Are They Catholic.” He suggested that some local chapters of Catholic Charities were advocating for activities counter to Catholic teachings — including abortion — but was told that like all government programs, these government funds come with restrictions. Few — including our own family — seemed to pay much attention to Santorum’s concerns in 1996. Most probably believed that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops would never allow such a thing.
Bishops Need to Wake Up
We were wrong. Today, the USCCB has the largest illegal immigrant resettlement agency in the world. And although most Catholics would be pleased to know that their donations and their tax money was going to help resettle refugees fleeing persecution, most of us would not be pleased to know that Catholic Charities is actually helping illegal immigrants evade the laws of the United States.
In a pamphlet entitled “Know Your Rights In an Encounter with ICE” Catholic Charities workers advise illegal immigrants to resist all attempts by ICE to interview them or search their homes. Catholic Charities also provide referrals for legal aid to illegal immigrants by providing the Catholic Charities Hotline.
In August, 2023, Kerry Alys Robinson was appointed the new female president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA. One of her first actions was to travel to the border to visit the Catholic Charities agencies there. But Robinson’s focus has been much more directed toward increasing the role of women in the Church, something she has advocated throughout her career.
She was among a group of women who since 2007 have traveled to the Vatican to speak to cardinals there and to advocate for women in the Church. Out of the 168 local Catholic Charities agencies, 85 are led by female chief executives, and 70 percent of the full time staff members are women. Robinson has also highlighted the work of the organization Catholic Women Preach, which invites theologically grounded women from all around the world to reflect on the Sunday scriptures. In an interview Robinson lauded the contributions of women saying that “The more diverse and reflective of the people of God, the better our decisions are, the better our prayerful discernment, the better our prophetic voice.”
Today, President Trump and Vice President Vance are beginning to look closely at the role that all NGOs are playing in exacerbating the crisis at the border. The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed concern about the President’s executive orders targeting immigration. El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz described President Trump’s orders as “contrary to the moral law” and promised to educate immigrant on their rights, provide legal services, and offer humanitarian aid. Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico called President Trump’s executive order “overly simplistic” solutions and emphasized the inherent dignity of every person.
He also noted the positive impact on the economy and lower crime rates compared to native born citizens, a hotly contested viewpoint in the social sciences. The Catholic Legal Immigration Network condemned the President’s executive order and described them as a threat to foundational American values and Catholic principles. Calling them “dehumanizing” the Network’s executive director said that the executive orders “threaten the very fabric of our society.”
The truth is that the border crisis itself has threatened the very fabric of our society. And although we are called as Catholics to “welcome the stranger,” our resources have become overwhelmed, and our cities can no longer provide the necessary shelter and assistance that these immigrants need. It is time for a new solution and most people understand that. It is time that the bishops of the Catholic Church acknowledged this also.
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