The Catholic News Agency portal (January 2, 2026) reports on Catholic Charities USA’s 2026 policy priorities, emphasizing expanded government food assistance (SNAP) and housing programs following 2025 disruptions. Luz Tavarez, the organization’s vice president of government relations, expresses concern about tightened work requirements for SNAP recipients aged 55-64 and immigration status verification rules while advocating for increased federal housing subsidies and developer tax credits. The article frames poverty relief primarily through legislative lobbying and state intervention, treating Catholic Charities as a policy actor within secular governance structures rather than as an arm of the Church’s spiritual mission. This bureaucratic approach to charity constitutes a fundamental betrayal of the Church’s divine mandate.
Naturalistic Reduction of Corporal Works of Mercy
The article reduces the opera misericordiae to technocratic policy debates, ignoring their supernatural purpose. While Tavarez speaks of “dignity in work,” her organization’s primary focus remains securing government appropriations rather than restoring souls to sanctifying grace. Nowhere does the text mention that true charity flows from the Sacrifice of Calvary perpetuated in the Holy Mass, not congressional budget negotiations. Pius XI condemned this secularization in Quadragesimo Anno (1931), emphasizing that “Charity cannot take the place of justice unfairly withheld,” yet Catholic Charities’ advocacy accepts the welfare state as first recourse rather than demanding restitution of stolen property through rerum novarum principles.
“We recognize that there’s a real crisis — I think everybody does in a bipartisan way — but there needs to be a real bipartisan approach and it’s going to require money,” Tavarez said.
This statement exposes the theological bankruptcy of the conciliar sect’s approach. The Church has never taught that solving poverty requires “bipartisan” political consensus but rather the conversion of rulers to Christ the King. Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) insists society must be “organized by religion,” not partisan negotiations. Tavarez’s plea for federal funding constitutes implicit acceptance of US government usurpation of the Church’s exclusive right to coordinate charitable works as mediator between rich and poor.
Silence on the Supernatural Finality of Charity
The entire article omits any reference to the salvation of souls as the ultimate purpose of Christian charity. Modernist entities like Catholic Charities USA operate as social service NGOs indistinguishable from secular counterparts, abandoning the Church’s mission to use corporal works as conduits for sanctification. St. Vincent de Paul’s maxim—”Go to the poor: you will find God”—is replaced by bureaucratic metrics of benefit distribution. Pius X’s condemnation of the Sillonists applies here: “They dreamed of a future renewal of all humanity by means which were… purely natural” (Notre Charge Apostolique, 1910).
Crucially, the text avoids mentioning whether “Catholic Charities” ensures beneficiaries receive catechism, sacraments, or spiritual direction. This omission confirms the organization’s descent into materialist activism. As St. Augustine taught, “He who does not have charity, though he distributes all his goods to the poor, gains nothing” (Sermo 349), yet Tavarez measures success through SNAP enrollment numbers rather than baptisms or confessions.
Complicity in Unjust Economic Structures
By lobbying for expanded welfare programs without denouncing usury or demanding restitution, Catholic Charities validates exploitative systems. The article notes the 2025 tax law “gave the biggest boost to the richest families” yet fails to invoke Catholic teaching on distributive justice. Instead of condemning the intrinsic injustice of fiat currency and central banking—root causes of inflation eroding workers’ wages—the organization seeks accommodation within the existing economic disorder.
Leo XIII’s teaching in Graves de Communi Re (1901) forbids such appeasement: “When there is question of defending the rights of justice, the law of charity does not apply.” The conciliar sect’s charities have become tools enforcing socialist dependency while the true Church demands the restitution of ill-gotten goods as mandated by Lateran IV (1215) and codified in Canon 142 of the 1917 Code.
Undermining Subsidiarity Through Centralization
Tavarez laments states potentially underfunding SNAP and Medicaid, revealing the conciliar sect’s preference for top-down federal control over local charitable initiatives. This violates Pius XI’s principle in Quadragesimo Anno: “It is an injustice… to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.” True Catholic charity flourishes through parishes, religious orders, and lay confraternities—not federal block grants administered by HUD bureaucrats.
The article’s focus on Section 8 vouchers and developer tax credits demonstrates complete abandonment of the Church’s historic role in directly constructing affordable housing through monasteries, guilds, and diocesan initiatives. Where medieval bishops built hôtels-Dieu, their modernist successors beg Caesar for housing subsidies—a humiliating abdication of ecclesiastical authority.
Conclusion: Neo-Church as Welfare State Functionary
This report exemplifies how the conciliar sect reduces the Church to a government contractor, her spiritual weapons exchanged for lobbyist talking points. Tavarez’s claim that “the Church isn’t necessarily opposed to people working” represents a staggering minimization of Catholic social doctrine to neoliberal platitudes. Meanwhile, millions starve spiritually while “Catholic” agencies distribute bread without the Eucharist.
Only a return to integral Catholic doctrine can restore charity to its supernatural purpose: “All the works of perfect Christian virtue… cannot please God without charity” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 33). Until then, organizations like Catholic Charities USA remain accomplices in the great apostasy—feeding bodies while starving souls.
Source:
Food assistance, housing top Catholic Charities’ policy wish list in 2026 (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 02.01.2026