GOOD NEWS: Catholic Relief Services Lays Off Staff, Cuts Programs

Catholic Relief Services is bracing for massive cuts — as much as 50% this year — because of draconian reductions in U.S. foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration, according to an internal email from the chief executive of the international relief organization.

CRS is the top recipient of funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which the Trump administration has targeted with a spending freeze, office closure and extensive staff cuts this week.

Layoffs have already begun as CRS has been forced to begin shutting down programs funded by USAID, which supplies about half of the Catholic organization’s $1.5 billion budget, said CRS president and CEO Sean Callahan in a staffwide email sent Feb. 3.

“We anticipate that we will be a much smaller overall organization by the end of this fiscal year,” Callahan wrote in the email, which was reviewed by National Catholic Reporter.

CRS officials at its headquarters in Baltimore did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. bishops’ conference, which created the organization 82 years ago, also did not respond to a request for comment.

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