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The government of President Donald Trump canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, ending over 60 years of relationship between the federal government and the Catholic Church for the care of unaccompanied migrant children in South Florida.
According to a report from EFE, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), notified the cancellation at the end of March, and the organization will have three months to cease its operations.
The affected program operated the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children's Village shelter, located in Cutler Bay, in Miami-Dade County, with a capacity of 81 beds, and also provided foster care services, family reunification, and trauma support for migrant minors.
The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, reacted strongly by indicating that the U.S. government had abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami.
This cancellation is part of a broader pattern, as the Trump administration also terminated contracts with Catholic organizations related to immigration services in other parts of the country, as part of its policy to tighten immigration controls.
According to reports, the administration is also closing and consolidating unused facilities within the network of shelters for migrant minors, indicating a deeper restructuring of the federal shelter system.
Wenski warned that the services of the Archdiocese of Miami for unaccompanied minors had been recognized for their excellence and had served as a model for other agencies across the country, but that, nonetheless, they had been stripped of their funding and would be forced to close.
The context is exacerbated by tensions between the White House and the Vatican. Archbishop Wenski is a close figure to Pope Leon XIV, the first American pontiff, born in Chicago, whose relationship with Trump has been marked by public friction.
The Archbishop of Miami spoke on Monday about the increasing public tension between President Trump and the Pope, defending the right and duty of the Church to express opinions on political matters. He also suggested that Trump probably regrets having shared a image that depicted him with the appearance of a biblical figure.
The immediate trigger of the dispute was twofold: León XIV described the war in Iran as absurd and inhumane violence, and he stated that Trump's threat to annihilate Iranian civilization, made on Easter Sunday, was "truly unacceptable."
That same night, Trump posted on Truth Social an image of himself in a biblical-style robe, seemingly healing a sick man with his hands filled with light. The post was removed the following morning.
Religious and political leaders from around the world condemned the image, with some labeling it sacrilegious. Trump responded to the Pope by calling him "weak on crime" and "terrible for foreign policy."
Wenski, in an interview given this Monday, was direct: "The Pope doesn't have to please anyone except the Lord."
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