It has been clear to some of us for a long time. But the USCCB has been too caught up in political lobbying, and too close to the same government influences which promote contraception, abortion, and other abominations to be the prophetic voice for the good, which they should have been. Let them go back to basics of spreading the faith, encouraging real charity*, and evangelizing for the Kingdom of God. Not that they shouldn’t heckle the government for the common good. But it should come out of a grounding in the faith. They have for too long acted as if they were primarily a politcal entity.

* False charity: wealth is forcibly extracted by the government from the unwilling, skimmed by the corrupt, and the remainder thrown impersonally to the ungrateful. No one’s soul is saved.

I write this because some people seem to have the impression that the USG has been doing Catholic charities a huge favor by giving them grant money. It was not largesse—we were glad when Caritas and others agreed to distribute our aid (money or food) to people we wanted to help.

With the government we have now, I suspect Catholic charities are better off without ties to us, so I agree with Blake.

I just hope there are non-Catholic groups catering to the needs of the victims of human trafficking. I know that several anti-slavery groups are Christian. We will see if the USG has problems with them, too.

The story’s pretty clear: the USCCB won the contract for 5 years, starting in 2006. This is 2011. 2011-2006 = 5 years. Then “the contract was extended briefly in March.” The story doesn’t say how long the extension was for, but implies that the extension was expiring on schedule, since the USCCB had to submit another grant request to continue the program. That the USCCB didn’t complain that the funding was cut prior to the expiration of the extension also suggests that the March extension was expiring. As to why they would award the money to someone else, rather than just continuing with the USCCB in the program is pretty clear, too:

HHS’s written instructions for groups seeking grants through the Trafficking Victims Protection Act said that the agency would give “strong preference” to applicants willing to offer referrals for the “full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care,” including family planning services.

The USCCB was not so willing, and they said so explicitly before they were awarded the contract in 2006. Now that the contract was up, and it was time to award a new contract, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the USCCB didn’t win it.

Now, we may hate the HHS written instructions for groups seeking grants. But that’s certainly no reason to dream up some out-of-the-blue, totally unexpected revocation of funds signaling an “escalation between the government and the USCCB.” It sounds to me like HHS was doing business exactly how Matthew Cantirino suggests they, and every other government bureaucracy, do business: “by rote.” In this case, when it was time to award a new contract on schedule, they followed the written instructions promulgated under Obama’s HHS. That’s how government works.

Why has this Administration stopped funding a program that was working?

Because it was working in such a way that shed light on – and in doing so undermined – a more far-reaching societal endeavor they wished to promote.

I think that’s pretty clear from the abruptness of the decision, the refusal to explain the decision… and indeed, based on the actual success of the program, the lack of any detectable reason for the decision.

I’m pretty sure the U.S. Bishops’ Conference can try to help victims of trafficking even without the HHS contract. There’s no law stopping them from doing so. There simply won’t be federal funds for any such help now. Practically, yes, that means the U.S. Bishops probably won’t be involved to the degree they were. But the government not awarding or extending the award of a contract hardly amounts to “imposition of artificial barriers.”