Portal Catholic News Agency reports on the Trump administration’s partial funding of SNAP benefits amidst a government shutdown, highlighting Catholic Charities USA’s fundraising efforts to address food insecurity. The article quotes Sen. Raphael Warnock condemning the administration’s handling of emergency funds and features Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the USCCB calling the situation “unjust and unacceptable.” This coverage exemplifies the modern reduction of Catholic social doctrine to secular humanitarianism while ignoring the divine solution to societal crises.
The Naturalistic Framework of Modern “Charity”
The article operates within a purely materialistic paradigm, framing hunger relief as a technical problem of resource distribution rather than a spiritual crisis arising from society’s rejection of Christ the King. Nowhere does it reference Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, which declares: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” (Quas Primas, 32). The complete absence of this foundational Catholic teaching in both the article and the statements of “Archbishop” Broglio reveals the conciliar sect’s capitulation to secular humanism.
When Catholic Charities USA launches a national fundraising effort described as “coming to the aid of our vulnerable brothers and sisters,” this language deliberately obscures the Church’s primary mission: the salvation of souls through the One True Faith. The article’s celebration of food pantries and soup kitchens as the Church’s response to hunger constitutes what Pius XI condemned as “that false philanthropy which…disregards entirely the law of God” (Divini Redemptoris, 30). Nowhere do these “charitable” initiatives demand the conversion of recipients to Catholic truth or condition aid on adherence to Catholic moral principles.
The USCCB’s Complicity in Secular Governance
“This shutdown places the burdens most heavily on the poor and vulnerable…who are the least able to move forward,”
laments “Archbishop” Broglio. Yet this statement accepts the heretical premise that temporal welfare constitutes the highest good. Contrast this with Pope Leo XIII’s teaching: “Civil society,…to provide for the common welfare…ought to make use of the doctrine and precepts of the Church” (Immortale Dei, 6). The USCCB’s silence on the government’s duty to recognize Christ’s social reign makes them accomplices in what Pius IX condemned as error #55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Syllabus of Errors).
John Berry of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul compounds this error by declaring the funding loss “a bipartisan moral failure,” as if Democrats and Republicans constitute legitimate moral authorities. This violates the Catholic principle that all civil authority derives from Christ the King (Quas Primas, 18). The article’s focus on Sen. Warnock’s political posturing (“the USDA under the Trump administration is choosing to pull hungry children into this fight“) further reduces Catholic social teaching to partisan talking points rather than eternal truths.
The False Dichotomy of State vs. Private Welfare
Nowhere does the analysis challenge the fundamental illegitimacy of both options presented:
- The secular welfare state usurping the Church’s historic role as primary provider of charity (condemned in Syllabus of Errors #26: “The Church has no innate and legitimate right of acquiring and possessing property“)
- The conciliar sect’s NGOs operating as secular nonprofits rather than instruments of supernatural charity
This false choice ignores the Catholic solution: a confessional state where civil authorities “submit themselves and rule their subjects dutifully to the Church” (Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam). The article’s celebration of EBT cards and government contingency funds constitutes implicit endorsement of usurious fiat currency systems condemned by Leo XIII: “the devouring usury…which the Church has denounced” (Rerum Novarum, 41).
Omission of the Supernatural Remedy
Most damningly, the article completely ignores the true spiritual causes of material deprivation:
- God’s punishment of nations for legalized abortion (Pius XI: “The sins of nations…are the causes of calamities“)
- The abandonment of Friday abstinence and penitential practices
- The proliferation of contraception sterilizing nations into demographic collapse
When Catholic Charities speaks of “food delivery programs” without mentioning distribution of blessed bread or sacramentals, they deny the reality that “man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The article’s exclusive focus on physical hunger while ignoring spiritual starvation fulfills Pius X’s warning about Modernists who “make conscience and science consist in…material phenomena” (Lamentabili, #58).
The government shutdown’s duration becomes a point of historical comparison (“second-longest government shutdown“), yet the article remains silent on the 2,000-year continuity of Christ’s true Church against which all earthly regimes are temporary aberrations. This myopia reflects the conciliar sect’s captivity to temporal power structures rather than the eternal kingship of Christ.
Source:
Trump administration will partially fund SNAP as Catholic groups try to fill gap (catholicnewsagency.com)
Article date: 03.11.2025