Last week Thursday during an interview on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was asked about the impact that cuts from the Trump administration have had on its efforts to resettle foreigners in the United States.
“We are no longer receiving those dollars, and we have, as a result, discontinued our resettlement services,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City said.
“I donʼt think it has affected … our ability to continue our core mission,” he added, “but weʼll have to adjust our budgets and act accordingly.”
The U.S. State Department announced in February 2025 that it was terminating two prior agreements with the USCCB for refugee resettlement programs. The USCCB issued a statement a month later announcing it had made the “difficult decision” to stop working with the federal government on such projects. Under the Biden administration, the USCCB had been receiving more than $100 million annually to help import migrants stateside.
Arroyo asked Coakley about several other subjects Thursday, including his assessment of the future of the Latin Mass and a recent bill signed into law by Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healy, a self-identified Catholic. Coakley theorized that Leo has not yet made a final decision on the traditional liturgy, despite mounting evidence suggesting he will not liberalize its use.
It is likely that Arroyo asked Coakley about the Trump administration’s decision to stop providing funds for the USCCB because Brian Chau of Effort News drew attention to the bishops on social media last week.
On Monday, Chau released a report on X that revealed over $1.2 billion in grant money had been directed to religious organizations so they could help resettle immigrants in the United States, which many conservatives and America First supporters generally oppose. The more than $180 million the USCCB received in 2024 was given under the auspices of the “Migration and Refugee Services” program.
The Dispatch
Chau’s work caught the attention of tech billionaire Elon Musk. On X, he said “wow” while sharing a post by influencer Hunter Ash that noted over 80 percent of the USCCB’s 2024 budget was for resettlement programs.
Other than the USCCB, Church World Service, Global Refuge, and Episcopal Migration Ministries received millions of dollars in grants, effectively making them functionaries of pro-open borders politicians.
Brendan Hodge of The Pillar took issue with the way Chau and others were reporting on the news.
“This is an extremely misleading way to frame it. The USCCB acted as a clearing house for grants that went to Catholic orgs that did work to help refugees. From 2014 to 2023, the conference received $797M in funding and spent a total of $850 million on the programs,” he said on X. “These grants did not go to fund general USCCB operations, and those general operations are continuing despite the fact that funding was cut off last year.”
Levi Russell of The Leonine Institute pushed back against the claim that the arrangement was entirely benign.
“It’s reasonable to point out that fully 80% of the USCCB’s revenue was at least promised by migration grants, given how vocal the bishops are about importing as many people into the US as possible,” he said on X in response to Fr. Matthew Schneider, noting the USCCB’s pro-immigration, anti-Trump stance.
Nearly 2,000 parishes have closed across the U.S. since 1990 and consolidation plans for churches in dozens of states indicate more closures are on the way. Financial strains are undoubtedly a significant factor in such closures, as well as a lack of clergy. An estimated 20 percent of U.S. parishes do not have a resident priest.
Time will tell how the USCCB will survive the setback or whether continued abuse settlements, combined with a drying-up of lay donations, fewer clergy, and a shortfall in grant money, will plague the group’s financial well-being going forward.
