These – The World’s Sick, Poor And Oppressed – Are The Treasure!

“Stop and think...”

Our father’s voice echoes through the decades. 

They may have been preceded by “Did you bother to…”

And followed by “before you open your mouth” or “before you do something foolish.” (He’d probably say “stupid.”)

If you knew our father, it’s easy to imagine (perhaps actually hear) him screaming at recent-convert-to-Roman Catholicism (and its 2000-plus years of tradition and teaching) JD Vance. 

Daddy would almost certainly tell him to “stop and think” before pontificating (pun intended) about the religion of centuries of Flynns – perhaps dating back to the Fifth Century and St. Patrick. The religion in which he was born, baptized, educated, married, reared his children, watched as one of his sons was ordained a priest, and was buried.

Since Daddy is not here, we offer a history lesson and facts for recent convert Vance.

The years 249 AD to 253 AD were not a good time to be emperor of Rome; four men sat atop the imperial throne during that time. The history of the empire immediately before 253, when Publius Licinius Valerianus was declared emperor by his own troops as he marched toward Rome, was one of internal and external conflicts so complicated we’ll avoid it.

Valerian appointed his son Publius Licinius Egnatius Galleons as co-emperor and dispatched him north to fight the threatening Goths, while he turned his attention to the Goths threatening Athens and Persians attacking the empire throughout Mesopotamia. In the end, he spent the last few years of his life in chains as a prisoner-slave, his back used as a step for the Persian emperor Shapur to mount his horse. 

The only Roman emperor ever to suffer the ignominy of capture and imprisonment, in 257 AD (shortly before Sixtus II was named pope), he issued an empire-wide edict binding Christians to participate in the cults of the Roman gods and forbade gatherings in cemeteries (then a safe place for Christians to pray and worship). Failure to comply meant exile or death. In early August 258 AD, Valerian issued a second order: bishops, priests and deacons were to be summarily executed.  

On August 6, 258, Pope Sixtus II was seated and addressing his congregation, including six deacons (men chosen by the pope to assist in the administration of the churches of Rome) in the Cemetery of Praetextatus, when Roman troops arrived. Sixtus was probably first brought before a tribunal to receive his sentence and then, with six deacons, beheaded in the cemetery that day.

A legend cited by Saint Ambrose of Milan (died 370 AD) reports that, on his way to his execution, Sixtus met the deacon Lawrence, responsible for the material goods of the Church in Rome and the distribution of alms to the poor. 

“Where are you going, my dear father, without your son?” Lawrence inquired of his bishop. “Before you never mounted the altar of sacrifice without your servant, and now you wish to do it without me?”

Facing imminent death, Sixtus responded, “After three days you will follow me.”

Tradition and legend also hold that Lawrence, knowing that martyrdom was close at hand, sought out the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome, giving them all the money he had on hand, even selling sacred vessels of the altar to increase the sum.

Imagining that the Christians must have considerable treasure, the prefect of Rome sent for Lawrence: “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures – the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. [Your] God does not cause money to be counted. He brought none of it into the world with him – only words. Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.””

“I will show you a valuable part,” responded the future martyr. “But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.” Over the next three days, Deacon Lawrence gathered a great number of blind, lame, maimed, leprous, orphaned, and widowed persons and put them in rows before the prefect. 

“These are the treasure of the Church,” said Lawrence.

Angered that Lawrence and the Church of Rome had displayed their commitment to the Gospel, the perfect declared that Lawrence would realize his desire to follow his pope in martyrdom, but he would die by inches.

On his order, a great gridiron was prepared with burning coal beneath it. Lawrence was placed on the grill and, after the martyr had suffered for a long time, the legend says, he famously and cheerfully told the prefect, “It is well done. Turn me over.”

Having garnered votes with slanderous “stories” about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets, you, Mr. Vance, justified your violation of the Commandment against “false witness” by telling a Sunday, September 15, 2024 CNN interview “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do… [Y]es, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story….”

Mr. Vance, God created. Michaelangelo created. Bernini created. 

The “stories” about immigrants killing and eating “pets” were lies.  You did not create “stories.” You lied to get votes,

More recently, (and because we’re trying to be kind) you fibbed in your February 5 address to the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington when you said, “Think about it: How did America get to the point where we’re sending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars abroad to NGOs that are dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe? That is not what leadership on protecting the rights of the faithful looks like, and it ends with this administration.”

Why do we say you fibbed? 

Because you lacked the courage and moral fiber to name a single agency “dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe.”

A boy is seen with relief goods at a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) distribution center in Gaza City. (OSV News/Shareef Sarhan, for Catholic Relief Services)

In fiscal years 2013-2022, Catholic Relief Services was the single largest nonprofit NGO (nongovernmental agency) recipient of the United States Agency for International Development funding.

Our father would tell you “Stop and think and do the quickest of Google searches before you open your mouth.”

If you had, you might have read “Catholic Relief Services [founded in 1943] carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas.” Those words appear at the bottom of the CRS website, just below a diagram indicating that 94 percent of CRS funds go to programs and six percent to “Fundraising, Awareness, Management and General Expenses.”

OSV News is self-described as “a Catholic news and information services and evangelization partner that allows dioceses to connect and boost engagement with the faithful through the sharing of timely, trustworthy and accurate content that communicates the truth of what is happening in the Church and the world.”

Mr. Vance, that might be a good place for you to start reading before you begin telling “stories” about agencies of USAID “spreading atheism all over the globe.”

Carolyn Woo is currently a Distinguished President’s Fellow for Global Development at Purdue University and a member of the board of directors of the parent company of OSV News. Mr. Vance, she served from 2012-2016 as president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services. In a February 7 interview with OSV News – two days after your “spreading atheism” comments, she noted CRS projects funded by USAID “have significant impact on people’s health, their livelihoods, their well-being, their food and even medicine.” 

Sudanese mother Amira and her babies, a boy and girl, arrived at an Emergency Field Hospital in Gedaref, Sudan sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse. “People are welcoming me with love, and they are taking care of my babies, and they even provide them with milk. My aim is only to see my babies grow.”

Offering services in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, CRS employes more than 6,000 men and women overseas and 92 percent of those are nationals from the countries in which they serve.

More than 35 percent of CRS programming focuses on emergency relief and, in fiscal year 2023, 32 million people were served by 255 emergency relief projects in 68 countries; 129 agricultural projects in 43 countries served nine million people; and 103 health projects in 41 countries served 136 million people.

By the time this article posts, many of those recipients of aid, mercy, charity, justice – Mr. Vice President, you choose the word – will be turned away; it’s more than likely that some will die because of the decisions of your administration to dismantle what Republican and Democratic presidents for more than 60 years have described as “the lead international humanitarian arm of the U.S. government [USAID] …to alleviate poverty, disease and humanitarian need.”

Mr. Vance, in free nations around the world no one is converted to or is indoctrinated into atheism. The histories of our own churches are replete with stories of “rice Christians” – individuals and families who “became Christian” to feed their bellies with the rice offered by “Christian missionaries” from the developed world. That was then. Today, the major international Christian efforts begin with and focus on service.

Samaritan’s Purse medical staff carefully monitor the twins and feed them special therapeutic milk until they are strong enough to breastfeed exclusively. 

In recent days, your administration has cut off funding for World Vision, founded in 1950 to provide care for children in Korea during the era of the Korean War; today it serves folks in 100 countries in large part because of grants from the USAID. It ranks as one of the world’s largest Christian NGOs.

Samaritan’s Purse is a newcomer to Christian service – established in 1970 by pastor Robert (Bob) Pierce, the founder of World Vision International; its president is Franklin Graham, son of the “pastor” to decades of American presidents, evangelist Billy Graham. 

On its website, the International Justice Mission reports its role is to “protect people in poverty from violence by rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength… Our mission is to rescue millions, protect half a billion and make justice for the poor unstoppable.’

World Relief supports refugees “forced to flee for their lives to another country or community – over 40% of them children… supporting nearly 4,000 refugees in the U.S.”

Mr. Vance, what has your administration’s determination to interrupt or cut funding to USAID done? (We asked that rhetorically.) 

Here’s just one answer. On Friday, January 31, the evangelical charity World Relief which resettles refugees around the world but especially in the United States, was scheduled to begin services to a arriving group of Afghans who had worked alongside Americans in the long-running conflict in their homeland. The U.S. State Department’s order to stop all work under World Relief’s contract with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration has ended that assistance to Afghans who risked their lives to help Americans.

The bullets, bombs, and other violence of the conflict in Sudan are not the only causes of the war’s casualties. “You’ve treated me so nicely,” said Amira. “I feel as if I’m with relatives.”

By God’s grace, these and other organizations struggle to continue their efforts, all the while recognizing that children will go hungry, children will die, whole families will be affected and infected by otherwise treatable diseases, and women and children will be forced into slavery and sexual abuse. 

Mr. Vance, your administration is attempting to “rein in” and control USAID and reshape and reduce the assistance given to governments and peoples around the world by creating the illusion that American foreign aid is not only a waste of taxpayer money and a drain on the nation’s economy, but is somehow, mysteriously “spreading atheism all over the globe.”

On February 6, the Pew Research Center reported:

“The $71.9 billion in foreign aid that the government spent in fiscal 2023 works out to 1.2% of that year’s total federal outlays, which were more than $6.1 trillion.

“Since fiscal 2001, foreign aid has ranged between 0.7% and 1.4% of total federal outlays. For context, the federal deficit – the gap between receipts and expenditures that has to be bridged by borrowing – was nearly $1.7 trillion in fiscal 2023.

“Foreign aid was a bigger share of federal spending at the height of the Cold War. In fact, the modern aid system was very much a product of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry.

“In fiscal 1963, international assistance amounted to about 4.7% of total federal outlays, according to archived data from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But the share steadily fell as the Cold War ground on, bottoming at 0.6% of total outlays in fiscal 1989. (The OMB figures are slightly different from the ones on ForeignAssistance.gov due to differing methodologies, though the overall trend remains the same.)”

Wow! 1.2 percent of the total federal outlays in 2023!

World Relief assists in major disaster areas by helping to build and restore homes, helping communities thrive for years to come.

Mr. Vance, before you speak again about American aid being used for “spreading atheism all over the globe” (as surely you will, because your history of prevarication about immigrant folks eating pets is a foretaste of the untruths to come), we invite you to reflect on Matthew 15: 21-28.

In summary: A foreign woman begged Jesus to heal her daughter who was “demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” When his disciples urged him to send her away “for she keeps crying out after us,” Jesus explained that he was “sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Nonetheless, the woman persisted. And Jesus responded like your administration: “It’s not right to take the children’s bread (Americans’ hard-earned money) and toss it to the dogs.” And here’s the point, Mr. Vance: The woman reminded Jesus “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” Even the poorest of the world’s poorest and most oppressed deserve the scraps of the America’s budget of almost $7 trillion. And the Lord was moved. “’Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment.”

That, Mr. Vice President, is the lesson of St. Lawrence.

Or that’s the lesson Frank Flynn would have taught: “These – the world’s sick, poor and oppressed - are the treasure of the Church,”