DOGE's deadly cuts deserve a response from Black Catholics

As I was flipping through channels recently, I came across MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” Like other evenings, I paused to pay attention as he addressed his audience, expecting his usual harsh remarks on the nature of our current politics, or the perceived hypocrisy of mainstream media.

But O’Donnell’s comments especially piqued my interest on this occasion. He was speaking on the devastating effects of fiscal cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

In particular, he addressed how they are impacting hungry and impoverished populations around the world. I took particular note of the effects being wrought in Africa and the diaspora.

O’Donnell’s comments were as disturbing as they were infuriating. Not least among them, he noted the recent assertion from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that those who said the cuts have resulted in deaths are lying.

The depraved nature of the DOGE cuts seems hard to comprehend, and they are but a few of the actions taken by a presidential administration intent on fundamentally changing the very nature of how the United States treats not just its citizens, but its neighbors throughout the world. This is especially the case, given that the cuts apparently yield nominal savings at best. Newsweek editor Tom Rogers recently wrote the following:

“For all the chaos it caused, DOGE was unsuccessful in eliminating meaningful amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government. Elon Musk went after critical government programs without any recognition of the important roles they play, or any overarching rationale. First among these programs was USAID, which for a tiny slice of the federal budget accomplished a great deal to save lives, fighting disease around the world (in part to prevent maladies from reaching our shores) while projecting a very positive humanitarian image for the U.S.”

There is indeed no doubt that DOGE’s cuts have done terrible damage to the United States’ image and reputation. To help repair that reputation, it is up to American citizens to show compassion and care for those in need.

As Black Catholics, we would do well to understand this, particularly since the need for aid is acute among our brothers and sisters in the motherland and the Caribbean. As an integral part of the African American community at large, Black Catholics, through coordinated efforts with organizations like NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and the National Black Catholic Congress, have a unique opportunity to shed light on the need for greater humanitarian efforts.

Black Catholics in the United States need to be heard on these and other issues. Moreover, our newly elected pope, Leo XIV, has a background in and will seemingly have a pontificate focused on social justice. We have to seize the opportunity to raise our collective voices.

For example, as I watched the Holy Father offer his inaugural Mass last month, I was moved to see a sign in the crowd that was basically an SOS for the pontiff to help the citizens of Haiti. His reported connection to the island nation notwithstanding, the pope is not the only one who must answer the call, and those like it.

Black Catholics can and must strengthen our connection to Haiti and to other Black countries around the world that need our help. These trying times call on us as a people to help our brothers and sisters all over the world, but let us place a particular emphasis on addressing the needs of those throughout the diaspora. 

During Mass in any given African-American parish, it is not uncommon for Prayers of the Faithful to include helping members of our global Black community. Moreover, St. James the Apostles wrote of the ideal Christian that their “faith and his actions worked together. [their] actions made [their] faith complete.”  

As we strive toward this high calling, let us do the work to put our faith into action to answer the prayers of our people. Ultimately, we cannot depend on our government to do that work.

Douglas M. Stringer, JD, is a Business, Political, and Government Relations Consultant at Session Law Firm, P.C. in the Washington metropolitan Area, where he is a proud member of St. Augustine Catholic Church.

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