U.S. bishops will cease refuge resettlement work with government after Trump funding freeze

Catholic Church

The U.S.C.C.B. said it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support after its longstanding partnerships with the government in those areas became “untenable.”

By Kate Scanlon

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support after its longstanding partnerships with the federal government in those areas became “untenable.”

Earlier this year, the Trump administration suspended a federal refugee resettlement program as part of its broader effort to enforce its hardline immigration policies. The ensuing halt in federal funding for the USCCB’s refugee resettlement services is the subject of ongoing litigation, and it prompted the conference to lay off about a third of the staff in its Migration and Refugee Services Office in February.

A spokesperson for the USCCB told OSV News the bishops were seeking reimbursement of $24,336,858.26 for resettlement services (PRM and ORR programs) that was still pending payment as of April 7.

“This situation has been brought to us by the decisions of the government,” Anthony Granado, associate general secretary for policy and advocacy for the USCCB, told OSV News.

Despite decades of partnership with the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services, across administrations of both parties, including the first Trump administration, Granado said, “we’ve been placed in an untenable position now.”

“It is clear that the government has decided that it wishes to go about doing this in a different way that doesn’t include us, and so we were kind of forced into this position,” Granado said.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the USCCB and head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said in an April 7 statement it was “heartbreaking” to announce the bishops’ conference would not renew its “existing cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support.”

“This difficult decision follows the suspension by the government of our cooperative agreements to resettle refugees,” he said. “The decision to reduce these programs drastically forces us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution. As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form.”

Citing the government’s suspension of the cooperative agreements to resettle refugees, Archbishop Broglio said that the conference has “been concerned with helping families who are fleeing war, violence, and oppression find safe and secure homes.”

“Over the years, partnerships with the federal government helped expand lifesaving programs, benefiting our sisters and brothers from many parts of the world,” Archbishop Broglio said. “All participants in these programs were welcomed by the U.S. government to come to the United States and underwent rigorous screening before their arrival. These are displaced souls who see in America a place of dreams and hope. Some assisted American efforts abroad at their own risk and more seek a place to worship and pray safely as they know God calls them.”

He said, “Our efforts were acts of pastoral care and charity, generously supported by the people of God when funds received from the government did not cover the full cost.”

Federal law requires that unaccompanied refugee minors be cared for, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement historically has turned to faith-based organizations, including the USCCB, to carry out this work.

A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News about its cooperative agreement with the USCCB.

Granado said the conference’s cooperative agreements with the federal government were “really about people.”

“From the church’s perspective, this is about responding to the Gospel command — Jesus says in the Gospel, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me,’” he said, referencing Jesus Christ’s words in Matthew 25:35-40 regarding his final judgement. “This has been a blessing and a beautiful part of the USCCB and the Catholic Church in the United States.”

The children and refugees impacted “are real people, real families” as well as “the staff whose work will be impacted,” Granado said.

As the agreements end, Archbishop Broglio added, “we will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs. We ask your prayers for the many staff and refugees impacted.” The USCCB, Archbishop Broglio said, “will continue advocating for policy reforms that provide orderly, secure immigration processes, ensuring the safety of everyone in our communities.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to advocating on behalf of men, women, and children suffering the scourge of human trafficking,” he said. “For half a century, we have been willing partners in implementing the government’s refugee resettlement program. The Gospel’s call to do what we can for the least among us remains our guide. We ask you to join us in praying for God’s grace in finding new ways to bring hope where it is most needed.”

Source: U.S. bishops will cease refuge resettlement work with government after Trump funding freeze | America Magazine

French Film Review: Le Fil

Le Fil
Le Fil

Daniel Auteil directs and stars as a disillusioned criminal lawyer who has been appointed to defend a man accused of murdering his wife.

Daniel Auteil directs and stars as disillusioned criminal lawyer Jean Monier, who has been appointed to defend Nicolas Milik, a man accused of murdering his wife. While everything points to his guilt, Monier takes up the case, convinced of his innocence. As his investigations keep taking him back to the night of the murder and the family dynamics, he gets closer to his client, adding to the pressure to defend him. What began as an ordinary case will put him to the test.

Auteuil’s seasoned performance and Gadebois’ nuanced portrayal of Milik add depth to this courtroom thriller, which explores themes of moral ambiguity and redemption.

Director: Daniel Auteuil

Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Grégory Gadebois

Source: French Film Review: Le Fil – France Today

French Restaurant Review: Benoît, Paris 

Benoit Restaurant

Opened since the 1910s, Benoit is a institution in the Parisian dining scene. Sometimes, nothing beats a cosy, traditional restaurant and its honest and delicious French food.

By Alexander Lobrano

Since traditional bistro cooking has increasingly become an expensive heirloom dining experience in Paris, Benoit is a place I happily keep close tabs on, regularly returning to revalidate its reputation as one of the capital’s great gastronomic institutions since it opened in 1912. Sitting in the Metro on my way to my most recent dinner here, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic as I mused on my first meal in this charming dining room, with its brass coat racks, globe lamps and big service bar in the original dining room.

On a chilly wet September night in 1986 when the stone pavements of Paris were covered with slippery yellow appliqués of fallen chestnut and poplar leaves, I pulled back the heavy red velvet breeze-blocking curtains at Benoit and stepped inside. Newly arrived in Paris, I was living in a (now long-gone) hotel on the Rue Boissy d’Anglas, which meant I had to dine out every night, a daily inevitability I deeply dreaded.

Aside from an occasional lunch seated on a stool at an American coffee shop, I’d never eaten alone in a restaurant dining room, and I found this public display of my solitude excruciating. I squirmed non-stop, imagining that people thought I was pitifully friendless or eccentric – or both. I bolted through these meals as quickly as I could and avoided eye contact as well.

inside Benoit

 

Still, since I was living on a company expense-account it would have seemed foolish not to make the best of things, so I was working my way through the addresses found in a popular restaurant guidebook to Paris and had booked a table for one at Benoit.

Though I especially loathed what seemed like the eternity of standing by the reservation stand by myself, I was immediately mesmerized by the soft, glowing light of this intimate dining room, its velvet banquettes and the framed black-and-white photograph of a natty old man in a beret on the wall. I was greeted and seated immediately, though, and my waiter was an avuncular man with an immaculate white apron tied with a small tight knot in the middle of his barrel-like girth.

For some unknown but lucky reason, he was instantly amused by me, and after bringing me the menu, he returned with a flute of champagne, which panicked me, because I hadn’t ordered it and didn’t want my new employer to accuse me of extravagance. I fumblingly tried to wave the bubbles away, but he shook his head.

“Avec ce temps de merde, il faut boire du champagne,” he insisted (‘with this crappy weather, one must drink champagne’); he was right, too, and the drink never showed up on my bill either. When he returned to take my order, he told me what I would be eating instead – leeks vinaigrette with toasted hazelnuts, boeuf aux carottes, and tarte Tatin (my first), washed down with a bottle of Cairanne. I was dumbstruck by his gastronomic domineering, but it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Why was he so kind to me? I’ve often wondered, but I can’t help but think that I may have reminded him of himself the day he’d climbed on a train somewhere deep in the French countryside as an innocent young man to move to Paris and make his way in the world.

In any event, Benoit has been a fixture in my life for nearly 40 years, and through various changes in ownership – Alain Ducasse bought it from the Petit family in 2005 – it’s never failed me. Meeting a friend for dinner the other night, however, I was disappointed by the distracted and disorganised welcome from a rather off-handed young woman, because given its prestige, Benoit deserves a seasoned maître d’.

But the menu continues to deliver in the most marvellous of old-school ways. My spouse is from Valenciennes, a small industrial city on France’s border with Belgium that I’ve visited many times, so I was glad to see this proud, hard-working little town’s gastronomic speciality still on the menu: la langue de Lucullus fine slices of smoked tongue interleaved with pâté de foie gras a rich but sumptuous treat. Onion soup and escargots in garlic butter, which my friend had, were also excellent versions of these monuments of Gallic gastronomy. Skate wing with a grenobloise sauce (lemon, capers, brown butter and croutons) was outstanding, as was the cassoulet, a long-running favourite of the regulars here, and the tête de veau ravigote, or boiled calf’s head. Sadly, these great French dishes are increasingly difficult to find in Paris as younger French diners prefer ‘light’ eating, including sushi, hamburgers and pizza.

Alas, the tarte Tatin, the upside-down tart of caramelised apples that left me stunned with pleasure when I ate it with spoonful after spoonful of ivory-coloured crème fraîche many decades ago is no longer on the menu. But the savarin (sponge cake) with armagnac is an excellent stand-in and so is the delightful vanilla mille-feuille.

To be sure, Benoit has become rather pricey – plan on spending about €80 a piece at dinner here, but as long as its heavy, red velvet curtains on a ceiling-mounted half-moon of brass continue to block the damp breezes of an often rainy city, we’ll always have Paris.

20 rue Saint-Martin, 4th arrondissement, Paris

Tel. (33) 01 42 72 25 76

 

Source: French Restaurant Review: Benoît, Paris – France Today