Catholic Relief Services, the overseas charitable arm of the Catholic Church in the U.S., urged the Trump administration to issue "prompt payments" for life-saving foreign aid work after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month that just a fraction of programs of the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development would remain intact.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is working as a special adviser to President Donald Trump, targeted USAID for closure with his Department of Government Efficiency, an unofficial task force with the stated intent of curbing federal spending. Cuts to the government's humanitarian aid agency, which operated in countries all over the globe, included funding for efforts by Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian groups.
In a March 17 statement, CRS said that, as a part of the Catholic Church, the group "believes that human life is a precious gift from God that must be protected and nurtured."
It said, "Over the past six weeks, CRS has had to halt much of our U.S. government supported work due to the lack of payments: food in warehouses could not be distributed to the hungry and women and children could not get vital health and nutrition services."
CRS said the "termination of dozens of CRS' life-saving projects," including 11 operating under humanitarian waivers, "will permanently cut off critical aid to more than 20 million people worldwide."
"These programs do more than save lives," the statement said. "They help lift communities and countries out of poverty. They support local faith-based and church partners that provide services and stability to their communities and to their countries."
As a part of "the Holy Season of Lent in this special Jubilee year," the group continued, "Pope Francis invites Catholics and all people to become artisans of hope by building communities rooted in solidarity. CRS programs attend to the needs of very poor communities."
CRS also noted that Pope Francis has appealed for Catholics in the Jubilee Year to "become "artisans of hope by building communities rooted in solidarity" and explained that CRS programs serve "the needs of very poor communities."
"As the most powerful and wealthy country in the world, our government also has a moral responsibility to assist the most vulnerable," CRS' statement added, citing St. Paul VI's encyclical "Populorum Progressio."
"By ending these life-saving programs, our government is not only neglecting our nation's responsibility, but also weakening the very foundations of peace, stability and prosperity," CRS said. "We urge the administration to reverse these terminations and issue prompt payments to continue this life-saving and life-giving assistance."
Foreign aid is a relatively small share of the U.S. government's annual spending. According to data by the Pew Research Center, for fiscal year 2023, foreign aid was 1.2% of that year's total federal outlays of $6.1 trillion.
