Summary

The Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis condemned the Trump administration’s decision to halt USAID funding, warning it will cause millions of deaths and widespread poverty.

Cardinal Michael Czerny criticized the move as “reckless” and urged the U.S. to uphold Christian values of aid and compassion.

The cuts impact Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian programs, jeopardizing decades of progress.

Czerny also denounced Trump’s immigration crackdown. U.S. Catholic bishops issued a rare rebuke, calling Trump’s policies on aid, immigration, and justice harmful to the vulnerable.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    Here’s an idea: if the Vatican is so concerned about the fate of the poor, how about it uses its own obscene wealth and assets to step up to the plate?

    Fucking hypocrites…

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      When I was seven years old, we visited the Vatican. We were walking around and saw there was some little exhibit hall down some stairs sort of out of the way that no one was going to. So we went in there. Inside were all the horse-drawn papal carriages. A dozen of them, all covered in gold.

      Even at that age, all I could think was, “there are people starving in the world…”

      • Drusas@fedia.io
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        21 hours ago

        That makes sense. Our generation had it drilled into us that our waste was shameful because there were so many people starving in the world. In my day, it was “children in Ethiopia”.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          To be fair, it was literally just to see the art. My family is Jewish but my parents absolutely loved art and instilled a love of art in me very early on.

          Fun story- my dad, much like me, had very stereotypical Jewish features- the big, hooked nose, the curly hair, that sort of thing. So right outside the Vatican, we’re looking at a souvenir stand, and the man behind the stand says to my father, in Yiddish, “what’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing in a place like this?” My dad replies back, also in Yiddish (this is all second-hand, I don’t know any Yiddish), “what’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing in a place like this?” And he said, “a man’s got to make a living!”

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      They do use their liquid assets for that, but not selling the illiquid ones like art and real estate. I think it’d be a shame to turn cathedrals into shopping malls, but maybe it’s worth putting the money to good use.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Europeans waiting for the US to give them billions of free aid after complaining about how we’re evil