[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]
When I was in Catholic grade school there were collections for pagan babies. Pagan babies were un-Baptized children in the Third World. The money went to these countries to make it easier for families to bring their babies to church. It was a very straightforward goal and necessary since — as the Church taught at that time — pagan babies did not go to Heaven.
In today’s Catholic Church, everybody goes to Heaven, especially since Pope Francis inferred that there was no Hell and that every religion is a highway to God. This may explain why Pope Francis honored the Pachamama idol in 2019. Idols outside the Christian sphere — as opposed to icons of saints — are now considered part of the Church’s complex new face.
This means that the word “Catholic” no longer means what it meant two short decades ago. This is plainly evident in the world of Catholic hospitals and universities; many are Catholic in name only. At Villanova University, for instance — a “Catholic” university in suburban Philadelphia — professors in the Theater Department use pronouns in official communications.
And Notre Dame University in Indiana publishes books that are as woke as works published by Harvard University Press.
In 2022, Crisis Magazine published a story about how Notre Dame University was offering abortion access to students, despite official university policy and Indiana law:
A professor of the Keough School of Global Affairs has offered and promoted abortion access to Notre Dame students. This includes helping students procure Plan B aborticide pills and referring students to other abortion services. Professor Tamara Kay bragged about her efforts to refer students to abortion resources at an event called “Post-Roe America: Making Intersectional Feminist Sense of Abortion Bans.”
Catholic Charities USA is another organization that is Catholic in name only. Founded in 1910 when it was called “the attorney for the poor,” Catholic Charities assisted the poor and helped them become part of the mainstream of American life. The organization also helped New York’s (legal) immigrant Irish while stressing the importance of Catholic moral values and getting the people it helped to question what part, if any, they may have had in creating the situation in which they found themselves.
Then along came the Second Vatican Council, and Catholic Charities put on a new suit of clothes. Political advocacy became its key mission when it began to encourage local communities to fight against unjust social structures.
The change in Catholic Charities was especially noticeable under the leadership of Jesuit Fr. Fred Kammer, a lawyer and author of the book Doing Faithjustice, in which the priest argues that “racism is the root cause of the economic and social oppression in society.”
In 2022, Fr. Kammer in a podcast entitled “Welcome the Stranger!,” said that “from human dignity comes the right to migration.” He quoted Pope John XXIII in 1963:
John XXIII writes that every human being has the right to migrate, the right of freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own country, and when there are just reasons for it the right to migrate to other countries and take up residence there….
The key phrase here — “when there are just reasons for it” — is open to interpretation. Notice also that the John XXIII quote gives no thought to the will or the right of the country in question to refuse the — as Fr. Kammer puts it — “the pilgrim people on the move.”
By the late 1960s, Catholic Charities was knee-deep into the philosophy of radical Left-wing strategist Saul Alinsky. In his 1971 book Rules for Radicals, Alinsky offered his impassioned counsel for young radicals:
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history, the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer…
In the 1950s, the first meeting of the International Conference of Catholic Charities was held in Rome. The 1980s saw a name change to Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA). In the 1990s, CCUSA, besides concentrating on domestic disaster relief, was now talking about climate change.
The year 2015 saw the first woman to lead CCUSA, Sister Donna Markham OP, PhD, an activist nun who does not wear a religious habit. CCUSA’s current president and CEO, Kerry Alys Robinson, recently pleaded with President Trump to rethink an executive order that essentially would end government funding for CCUSA based on the fact that CCUSA is only nominally Catholic and is engaged in work that undermines the United States.
“Catholic Charities first announced its politicization in a wild-eyed manifesto that invokes such radical sixties icons as Malcolm X, Gloria Steinem, Herbert Marcuse, and the Marxist-inspired Liberation Theology movement,” wrote Brian C. Anderson in City Journal in 2000.
“Ratified at Catholic Charities’ annual meeting in 1972, the organization 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.”
But In the mind of most Catholics, Catholic Charities was just a continuation of what it had always been: a truly Catholic organization with sensible guidelines in alignment with the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
The thin line between “Welcoming the Stranger!” and informing migrants how they can avoid ICE and deportation-a charge that has been leveled against CCUSA in some cities- has caused a great deal of confusion, with the Conference of U.S. Catholic Bishops claiming that CCUSA obeys the law and does not counsel migrants to hide from ICE.
But that is untrue.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Refugee and Immigration Services Program produced a video in which attorney Barbara Graham advises illegal migrants on how to avoid ICE when investigators are sent to their work place.
“Do not panic, and do not run away. If you are frightened and feel like you need to leave, you can calmly walk toward the exit,” Graham advised.
Graham then suggested that illegal aliens should “stonewall authorities by refusing to answer questions including where they were born or how they got into the US.”
Over the last four years under the Biden administration, CCUSA as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops counted as among the nation’s largest beneficiaries of government money. But this money comes with a “price.” As Taylor Marshall pointed out in a recent podcast, the situation is akin to early Christians paying the Roman state to support the killing of Christians in the Coliseum. The utilization of this federal money has seduced CCUSA into supporting issues cherished by the radical left, transforming CCUSA into an arm of the welfare state.
When, for instance, has CCUSA funneled money to the pro-life movement?
As Anderson pointed out, “CCUSA has deliberately avoided every single political issue that pits the Catholic faith against the culture of death in the public square. Abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, funding for Planned Parenthood — all these crucial issues are nowhere to be seen in the CCUSA’s ‘moral” agenda.”
In 1996, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was practically a lone voice when he castigated Catholic Charities for drifting away from the Church because of the lure of government funding.
Immediately after President Donald Trump issued directives that paused grants to organizations that aid migrants and refugees, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), on Feb. 18 filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over what the bishops say is an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee programs in the United States, many of which are run by Catholic Charities.
A Syracuse, New York Catholic Charities organization was forced to slash 51 jobs from its refugee resettlement program after the Trump administration blocked $1.7 million in government grants the organization was expected to receive in 2025.
This New York refugee program specifically assists migrants when they first arrive in the U.S., providing grants for food and housing in their first 90 days in the country.
“Programs for children and youth help young refugees acclimate and find success,” the Syracuse CCUSA website bemoaned.
But attaining “success” when you dodge ICE after having broken the law should not be rewarded by lucrative government contracts.