The Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development have harmed significant humanitarian projects funded by Catholic charities that impact aid provided to thousands of people in the Middle East, according to a recent report.
The cutting of USAID funds has “negatively impacted major projects” that Catholic charitable groups collaborate on with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program, the Catholic outlet OSV News reported.
About 10% of Caritas Lebanon’s funding has been removed by the cuts, including resources that funded educational programs, healthcare, legal counseling and child protection, OSV News noted.
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Father Michel Abboud, the Carmelite president of Caritas Lebanon, told OSV that he estimated that around 2,000 people have already been affected by the cuts, though he also expressed relief that some of the funding has been restored.
“Working with WFP, we have been providing critical food aid also to many poor Lebanese. If we stop now, how will they be able to find food from another source?” Abboud asked.
Wael Sulieman, the general director of Caritas Jordan, told OSV that the organization’s UNHCR assistance was cut by 70%, saying that this was “something that hurts us.”
“But I can assure you that after 25 years of working for Caritas, we have passed through difficult moments always because this is part of the life of any NGO,” Sulieman added.
President Donald Trump has sought to drastically cut funding and personnel at USAID, alleging that the agency has engaged in extensive wasteful spending to support controversial initiatives.
Examples cited by the White House included $1.5 million spent on “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities,” $2 million spent on sex change operations and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala and the delivery of hundreds of thousands of free meals to al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Syria.
Critics, among them multiple Christian nonprofits, have argued that the cuts — which reportedly amounted to 92% of USAID and State Department foreign assistance-related grants and contracts — have eliminated life-saving programs for vulnerable communities overseas.
In February, it was reported that Catholic Relief Services, which received $4.6 billion in USAID funds and was among the agency’s largest grant recipients for years, was forced to cut staff and refugee assistance programs due to the USAID reductions.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court released a 5-4 unsigned opinion that denied the Trump administration’s request to freeze $2 billion in USAID reimbursement funds, upholding a lower court order.
As a result, the Evangelical Christian charity group Samaritan’s Purse received a $19 million reimbursement from the government over work it did in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ended its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to refugee support due to the current administration’s gutting of refugee resettlement programs.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the USCCB, said in a statement that the “decision to reduce these programs drastically forces us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution.”
“As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form,” stated Broglio. “As USCCB cooperative agreements for refugee resettlement and children’s programs end, we will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs.”
“While this marks a painful end to a life-sustaining partnership with our government that has spanned decades across administrations of both political parties, it offers every Catholic an opportunity to search our hearts for new ways to assist.”
