Federal cut to Catholic Charities

The Trump administration has cut an $11 million federal contract for Catholic Charities in Miami, putting its migrant children’s program on a three-month shutdown clock. (cbsnews.com) The money came through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the Department of Health and Human Services agency that houses and places children who arrive in the United States without a parent or legal guardian. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami said the contract funded shelter, foster care, family reunification and related services. (hhs.gov) (vaticannews.va) The best-known facility in the program is the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village in Cutler Bay, an 81-bed shelter built to care for unaccompanied minors. Archbishop Thomas Wenski said the federal government notified Catholic Charities at the end of March and that the program would have to close within three months if the funding is not restored. (ncregister.com) (osvnews.com) Wenski asked the administration to reverse the decision at an April 15 press conference in Miami. He said the archdiocese’s work with unaccompanied children stretches back more than 60 years and has served as a model for other agencies. (miamiarch.org) (vaticannews.va) Federal officials have defended the cut by pointing to a smaller national caseload. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the daily population of unaccompanied children in federal care is about 1,900, down from a peak of roughly 22,000 during the Biden administration. (thehill.com) (acf.gov) That explanation does not change the immediate problem in South Florida: children already in the Miami program must be transferred, and the archdiocese says the local network of services will disappear if the contract stays canceled. Wenski told OSV News that children who had been in Catholic Charities’ custody were already being moved to other facilities. (osvnews.com) The Miami operation has roots in December 1960, when Father Bryan Walsh began receiving Cuban children sent to South Florida without their parents during Operation Pedro Pan. That history is why the shelter still carries Walsh’s name and why church officials describe the contract cut as the end of a long federal partnership, not a short-term grant dispute. (ourcommunitymedia.org) (miamiarch.org) The archdiocese has also tried to separate the funding fight from the wider clash between Trump and the Vatican. CBS Miami reported that church officials said the contract decision was not tied to a recent public dispute involving Pope Leo XIV and President Trump. (cbsnews.com) For now, the federal contract has ended, the children are being reassigned, and Miami’s Catholic leaders are still asking Washington to restore the money before the three-month deadline runs out. (usatoday.com) (cbsnews.com)