(RNS) — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Monday (April 7) that the bishops would not seek to renew agreements with the federal government for refugee resettlement and children’s services. The announcement comes after months of uncertainty about reimbursing Catholic agencies for their work with refugees, exacerbated in part by Vice President JD Vance’s allegation, in his first television interview as vice president in January, that the bishops’ true concern was for their “bottom line.”
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s suspension of the refugee resettlement program in late February, but at least a dozen local Catholic Charities agencies across the country have had to lay off hundreds of employees because the administration has not restarted payments.
A group of non-Catholic faith-based refugee resettlement agencies, including Church World Service, HIAS and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, have had success blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to radically reshape and diminish the refugee resettlement program, as a judge found the administration’s efforts to be a “nullification of congressional will,” but the USCCB, which filed its own suit with a narrower argument seeking to stop the Trump administration from pausing or cancelling contracts the conference, has met with less success.
Calling the USCCB …