February 6, 2025
Over the past few days, we have watched in shock as members of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – which was formed by executive order and not affirmed by Congress – have taken unprecedented and unauthorized steps to control personnel and financial information at the Department of Treasury, and have shuttered the US Agency for International Development (USAID). They also intend to target the Department of Education.
These harsh and blunt actions, with the purported intention of limiting federal spending, are profoundly damaging: Social Security payments are at risk; layoffs are expected; social service programs expect to be defunded; humanitarian efforts funded through the USAID have been abruptly halted; and federal employees are being pressured to leave their jobs.
According to policy analysts, what we are watching is a coup. Historian Heather Richardson Cox has said that this seizure of records from US departments by unauthorized persons is the biggest data breach in history.
Moved by our Catholic Christian moral principles, we urge you to act immediately and contact your elected representatives to tell them to:
1) Hold President Trump accountable for executive orders that undermine the established process and that overreach his authority.
2) Insist that, as a nation that provides significant aid (as well as most weapons, unfortunately), the United States has a moral responsibility to protect people around the world who are most vulnerable. USAID has been the program through which we have provided this assistance for decades. It is always worthwhile to review our policies and spending, but to simply stop cooperative programs in this impulsive manner is extraordinarily dangerous.
One of the principles of Catholic social teaching is the option for those who are poor and vulnerable; it reminds us that the moral test of a society is how it treats its most marginalized members. Those who are poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation, and our public policy decisions must always be considered with them in mind.
Our faith calls us to solidarity, the primacy of care, and the preferential option for those who are poor. As Bishop John Stowe, Pax Christi USA’s bishop president, wrote after the election in November, “Will someone who enjoys the company of brutal autocrats uphold the founding ideas of US American democracy? Not likely, at least not without our constant and loud protest.”
We strongly encourage Pax Christi USA members to connect with activities on local and regional levels to address members of Congress and other political leaders.
We all possess the right and the duty to participate in our political process, and we will continue to speak out!
Yes call your reps, senators even the republican ones. Next we have to take it to the streets. Remember during the Vietnam war, it was strong protest to finally stop the war.
Our faith have made us ‘Spiritual Warriors” (Matthew Fox), the guard rails to protect democracy.
Yes, we need to be kept posted, so we can do our civic duty. Blessings
As of April 2024, there are roughly 52 million Catholic adults in the United States, which is about 20% of the adult population. The Catholic Church has been the largest religious group in the US for over a century. We MUST raise our voices despite a disappointing lack in a strong concerted and persistent voice from our Church’s leadership. Catholic church leaders (not all but far too many) are failing to move their congregations and departments and institutions to speakout with the one voice of faith on these most pressing issues today. Thank you Pax Christi and the courageous leadership of a few US Bishops for lighting the way for us!
Catholic Relief Service is asking all of us to make personal contact with our Senators and Representatives, urging them to act to restore the flow of USAID funding while examining accounts.
Thank you, Pax Christi, for your reflection regarding the seismic political events unfolding in our country. Some of these actions have the potential to create dynamics that could cause longterm unexpected results. The most vulnerable need our voices and actions to be brought to bear on their behalf. May we be as the Prayer of St. Francis states, “…be an instrument of your peace.” Paz y bien, Deacon Terry Barber, ofs