"All These Things Are A Really Semi-Religious Or Religious Belief System"

I've already noted here the potential crisis the US Catholic bishops face in taking a public stance against the Trump administration's desire at minimum to cut back on funding to NGOs, including nominally Catholic programs, that have woke objectives. On January 28, immediately after Trump's imitial announcemnt of that policy, Catholic Charities, a major recipient of this funding,

urged the Trump administration to “rethink” its pause on federal funding for executive departments, noting the “millions of Americans who rely on this life-giving support.”

. . . “For more than a century, the Catholic Charities network has worked with the government to care for poor and vulnerable people in every community in the U.S., and we continue to be eager to work with government to care for our neighbors in need,” [Catholic Charities CEO Kerry Alys] Robinson said. “We strongly urge the administration to rethink this decision.”

On the other hand, there's some question about whether the federal grant money is used exclusively "to care for the poor and vulnerable":

President Joe Biden’s border policies were a boon for private religious charities associated with the Catholic Church, which collectively received billions in grant money while helping house and resettle migrants, while a federal watchdog warned about mismanaged funds and a potential for fraud.

The funding for these humanitarian programs that came through the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency has come under renewed scrutiny by President Trump and his administration, who seek to reverse years of financial incentives for the crisis of border crossings under their predecessor.

Catholic Charities USA, comprised of 168 local member agencies across the United States, is one of the largest private recipients of government funding under several immigration-related programs that critics have said allowed the Biden administration to relocate and shelter migrants in the United States.

. . . For example, the endowment associated with Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Fort Worth in Texas experienced a more than 34 fold increase in funding from government grants from FY 2021 to FY 2023. In FY 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration, the group had only received $11.7 million in grant money. By FY 2023, that amount had ballooned to $401.7 million. A majority of that funding was earmarked for a “Refugee and Entrant Assistance” program, according to the financial records.

. . . For example, Catholic Charities of Louisville, Kentucky also experienced a similar growth in funding over the same period. In FY 2021, the group took in roughly $10 million in federal grants, but by FY 2023, that number had exploded to about $122 million.

. . . Catholic Charities San Antonio, which received more than $27 million in total from FEMA, was accused by a Democratic congressman of misusing funds it received for the program by purchasing airplane tickets for migrants in its care.

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, the then-ranking member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and member who helped create the program, and Rep. Monica de la Cruz, a Republican, told the Border Report that the program was never intended to support long distance travel but rather things like food and shelter.

“When I first started this program, I said it would only be used for food and shelter, maybe transportation inside a city, but not to be sending them up there. The family or somebody should pay for that, not the taxpayer dollars,” Cuellar told the outlet last April.

However, the newly appointed Arcnbishop of Detroit, Edward Weisenburger, a longtime Trump opponent,

warned against the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle USAID, and highlighted the responsibility the United States has to care for those suffering around the world.

“In our culture, when we don’t have to see that person, see that process, we can kind of close our minds to it, but I don’t think a Christian can do that,” Weisenburger said in an introductory news conference[.]

Nevertheless, this hasn't done away with the inevitable inference that Catholic Charities benefited enormously from the Biden administration's increased funding, and indeed, that such funding wasn't necessarily offered for programs in conformity with Church teaching. If, for example, as in the San Antonio case, the money was going to transport migrants to the US who intended to cross the border illegally, this would be in opposition to CCC 2241, which says countries may "make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions".

This is leading to expressions of concern from prominent Catholic Trump supporters such as Vice President Vance, but former Speaker Newt Gingrich raises an intriguing additional point in the video embedded at the top of this post. Answering a question from Sean Hannity on why Democrats are objecting to cuts in USAID and other grants, he says at 1:23:

There are two different things going on here with the Democrats. The first is, they are watching with terror as all the different sources of government money that has propped them up for the last 60 or 70 years, all of it, is now being challenged by President Trump amd Elon Musk. And this cuts to the very base of their coalition, If they can't bribe people corruptly, if they can't take care of their friends, their entire coalition is going to collapse.

Second, you have a very large part of the Democratic Party for whom the beliefs you are describing, transgenderism, for example, are religious beliefs. This is a secular religion. They can't unlock, because they believe these things. They believe in an open border. They believe there really is no such thing as America. They believe that it's really good to have millions of people flood into this country, it's really good to have people who don't have to work. . . . All these things are a really semi-religious or religious belief system. . .

How much has this semi-religious belief system infiltrated the Catholic Church? It's worth noting that prominent US Cardinals like Blase Cupich and Robert McElroy are not just in favor of uncontrolled migration, they're notably squishy on LGBT+ issues. I've already noted here that the potential abuses by Catholic Charities of grants for immigration support cold result in a crisis equivalent to the clerical sexual abuse crisis of the early 2000s. and the US bishops, not to mention Pope Francis, seem unaware of the risks involved, at least so far.

It would be foolhardy for them to underestimate either Trump of J D Vance. Gingrich's remarks on the whole semi-religious belief system are insightful and a major point of current vulnerability for the bishops and the Holy See.