President Donald Trump has ended a multimillion-dollar contract for a Catholic charity serving migrants amid his ongoing feud with Pope Leo XIV.
The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami provides housing and assistance to migrant children and has done this work for 60 years. Without the funding provided by the $11 million federal contract, the charity may cease to exist by the year’s end, according to the Daily Beast.
Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami, wrote in the Miami Herald that he found it “baffling” that the government would cut off funding to a service that has provided help to children for more than half a century. The archbishop predicted the center would only last another three months without the funding.
The funding came through the Department of Health and Human Services and a spokesman said the cut happened because the number of kids under the archdiocese’s care dropped, according to the Daily Beast. It was at 1,900 under Trump, down from around 22,000 under former president Joe Biden. The cancellation was first discussed in March, according to the report.
The contract’s cancellation comes at a time when the Trump administration and the Vatican are at odds.
The American-born Pope Leo has been vocally critical of the Trump administration, both for the way it treats immigrants and because of its warmongering. During the Pope’s annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps — sometimes referred to as his “state of the world” address — he called for peace and rebuked world leaders who sought out conflict.
That criticism did not sit well with Trump.
In January, apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre — serving as Pope Leo’s U.S. representative — was called to the Pentagon to meet with U.S. officials.
A report by The Free Press claims that Pierre was dressed down by Pentagon officials over the Pope’s anti-war comments and that he was told that “the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants” and that the Vatican should side with the U.S.
The Department of Defense acknowledged that the meeting happened but said in a statement that the Free Press‘s reporting was “exaggerated and distorted” and later said on X that Secretary of State Pete Hegseth’s deputy, Elbridge Colby, “had a substantive, respectful, and professional meeting” with the cardinal.
Since then, Pope Leo has pushed back on Trump’s now-infamous Truth Social post threatening to destroy Iran’s entire civilization and has indirectly rebuked Hegseth’s call for Americans to pray for the downfall of his enemies.
The relationship has become more strained since. Trump shared an AI image of himself as Christ healing the sick — he tried to claim he thought the image was showing him as a doctor — and Vice President JD Vance, a recent Catholic convert, made comments questioning the Pope’s grasp on Catholic theology.
Trump made the baffling claim that the Pope was soft on crime and then later told reporters directly that he doesn’t like the head of the Catholic church.
“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon. … He’s a man that doesn’t think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world,” Trump told reporters while referencing Iran. “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
The president’s disapproval does not trouble Pope Leo.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” Pope Leo told reporters this week.
He continued, saying his job wasn’t to be a politician, but a peacemaker.
“We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective (as) [Trump] might understand it,” the Pope said. “But I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
