(RNS) — On Sunday (Jan. 26), a collection of U.S. Catholic bishops’ staffers met at a Capitol Hill hotel with Catholic advocates and educators at the USCCB’s Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. In a keynote, Emilce Cuda, a Vatican official overseeing Latin American issues, had told her audience that though an inauguration “often heralds a honeymoon of hope,” there was already “an air of unrest,” and that Catholic social workers were already feeling “called to superhuman effort” to get through the next four years.
When they emerged for a coffee break, however, the gathering learned that a even a honeymoon had been too much to hope for.
In an interview that began airing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” during the break, Vice President JD Vance had fended off criticism from the U.S. Catholic bishops about the Trump administration’s migrant policies.”If they’re worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden,” said Vance, adding later that the bishops had “not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement.”
In a line New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan would later call “scurrilous,” Vance went on to suggest the bishops’ thinking was clouded by their concern for the funding they receive for resettling refugees. “Are they actually worried about their bottom line?” the vice president asked.
Just a week into the Trump presidency, the U.S. bishops find themselves in an unaccustomed position: For the first time in history, their character has been called into question by a Catholic standing at the helm of the U.S. government.
Some of their differences with the new GOP are not new: On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order signaling an intent to expand use of the death penalty, renewing the eagerness to resume federal executions shown at the end of the last Trump administration. While the president seems reluctant to enter new armed conflicts, his administration will continue with weapons sales the pope disapproves of.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, at podium, opens the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy USCCB Secretariat of Justice and Peace)
At the Capitol Hill gathering, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal representative in the U.S., highlighted “the abolition of the death penalty, advocacy for world peace and the just treatment of migrants and refugees” as three major areas of focus for attendees. But this last policy area has shown the most potential for clash with the new administration.
Though showing signs of reeling internally, the bishops have greeted that unprecedented level of opposition with a low-key statement and renewed their vows to press for humanitarian protections for migrant families.
In his address on ecology to the social ministry gathering on Monday, Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, made the point that the church’s concern with topics such as human trafficking is at the core of the faith’s theology. Referring to the New Testament’s Letter to the Romans, a first-century text, Tyson told the audience that Paul drew on the ancient reality of human trafficking in forming Christian concepts of redemption and salvation related to the crucifixion, and these realities are still applicable today.
Tyson said that in his agricultural diocese, parishioners have experienced modern human trafficking. A seminarian named Nico, he said, had been kidnapped and tortured in his native Guatemala by men who extorted $50,000 from the young man’s family. “In his bones, (Nico) grasps that we can’t save ourselves. We can’t pay our own ransom. Someone else must do it for us,” Tyson said.
Bishop Joseph Tyson addresses the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy USCCB Secretariat of Justice and Peace)
In making connections between the redemption of humans and of creation, the bishop called on attendees to “arrest the desertification of the human heart which has become so vast so we can stop the literal spread of deserts around the world.”
On Tuesday, the bishops’ staffers and Catholic college students in attendance walked to congressional offices on Capitol Hill to attempt to change some hearts, armed with policy booklets urging lawmakers to use tax and economic policy to support poor families in the U.S., foreign aid to support poor families abroad and humanitarian protections for migrants.
Until recently, Catholic bishops’ emphasis on their anti-abortion stance has often made Republican politicians natural allies, and even as the abortion battle has moved to the states with the end of Roe v. Wade in 2022, there is plenty of overlap in the two groups’ positions: Among the policy asks the social ministry advocates brought to lawmakers were an end to taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood and support for taxpayer funding for private school tuition.
But with legislation gaining in Congress to increase deportation and immigrant detention in addition to Republicans’ backing of the Trump administration’s pause in foreign aid, the Catholic advocates faced harder conversations.
“ It’s scary to think about our country not providing that kind of aid,” said Andrew Musgrave, the director of Catholic social action for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, of the White House’s targeting foreign public health assistance.
Andrew Musgrave. (Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Cincinnati)
In speaking with Sen. Jon Husted and a staffer for Sen. Bernie Moreno, Musgrave said, both were attentive but made few policy commitments, other than signaling Moreno’s support for the child tax credit.
To see the Catholic vice president from Ohio attack refugee resettlement was “discouraging,” Musgrave said. “We certainly held hopes and still do hold hopes that he’ll be a good ally for us,” the member of both the Cincinnati archdiocesan immigration task force and the Immigrant Dignity Coalition said.
“We have decades of evidence that the U.S. Catholic Church has been a passionate defender of the rights of all people,” Musgrave said of Vance’s comments.
The bishops too have tried to soothe the recent antipathy by pointing to history. “Faithful to the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has a long history of serving refugees,” the statement read. “In 1980, the bishops of the United States began partnering with the federal government to carry out this service when Congress created the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP),” which the administration recently halted.
They reminded the administration that refugee services are a collaboration between faith-based groups and the government. The statement explained, “Every person resettled through USRAP is vetted and approved for the program by the federal government while outside of the United States.” Nor, they pointed out, does the U.S. fully fund the work. “In our agreements with the government, the USCCB receives funds to do this work; however, these funds are not sufficient to cover the entire cost of these programs,” the bishops said.
The friction was not entirely unanticipated. The bishops’ own annual report on religious liberty, released days before the inauguration, identified the targeting of the church’s immigration services as a top area of concern. “Beyond legal threats to religious liberty, the physical safety of staff, volunteers and clients of Catholic ministries and institutions that serve newcomers may be jeopardized by extremists motivated by false and misleading claims made against the Church’s ministries,” the report committee wrote.
Afghan refugees walk through a refugee camp on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Sept. 27, 2021, prior to being resettled in the United States. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
They also highlighted Vance and other Catholics’ role in the Trump administration as having the potential to “be a fresh source of partisan division among Catholics.”
Still, the vice president’s comments, which appeared to arise from arguments pushed more recently by people on Catholicism’s extreme right, came as a shock, but Musgrave said that the bishops’ overall “moderate” response reflects their understanding that advocacy is a “marathon,” not a “sprint.”
“ There’s a need to have that long view and know that a person who might be standing in a position contrary to yours today could be an ally in something else, so you don’t want to jeopardize that relationship for fear of what you might lose down the line,” he said.
Cuda, the Vatican official with responsibility for Latin America who spoke to the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering immediately before Vance’s words were broadcast, had reminded the staffers and Catholic advocates that Trump had promised in his inaugural address, “We will not forget our God,” a promise Catholics can help him carry out.
But whatever White House officials may claim about the bishops’ worth as partners, Cuda also said that, “The Catholic Church is a repository of common sense. We have a lot of history. Donald Trump is the 47th president; Pope Francis is the 266th successor of St. Peter.”
Emilce Cuda participates in a panel discussion during the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy USCCB Secretariat of Justice and Peace)
Jack Jenkins contributed to this story.
