Remember how the Left and the U.S. bishops cried crocodile tears about the money spigot appropriately -- and finally! -- being turned off by President Trump?
How poor souls would starve and die, and how mean and cruel the Republicans are and those who support them?
Well, here is the hard truth that is finally coming out... From thegatewaypundit.com and written by Cristina Laila
"A USAID official and three government contractors pleaded guilty to a decade-long bribery scheme involving over $550 million in contracts, according to the Justice Department.
According to court documents, beginning in 2013, USAID official Roderick Wilson agreed with corporate executive Darryl Britt to receive bribes in exchange for Watson’s influence to award contracts to a small business named Apprio and its subcontractor Vistant.
Watson received more than $1 million in bribes to steer no-bid contracts to Apprio and Vistant.
A race-based government program that allowed ‘socially and economically disadvantaged businesses’ to bid on contracts made this massive scheme possible.
“As a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, which helps socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, Apprio could access lucrative federal contracting opportunities through set-asides and sole-source contracts exclusively available to eligible contractors without a competitive bid process,” the DOJ said.
Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official;
Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, who was the owner and president of PM Consulting Group LLC doing business as Vistant (Vistant), a certified small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud;
Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, who was the owner and president of Apprio, Inc. (Apprio), a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official; and
Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, who was the president of a subcontractor to Vistant and Apprio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
“The defendants sought to enrich themselves at the expense of American taxpayers through bribery and fraud,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Their scheme violated the public trust by corrupting the federal government’s procurement process. Anybody who cares about good and effective government should be concerned about the waste, fraud, and abuse in government agencies, including USAID. Those who engage in bribery schemes to exploit the U.S. Small Business Administration’s vital economic programs for small businesses — whether individuals or corporations acting through them — will be held to account.”
“Watson was entrusted to serve the interests of the American people — not his own — and his criminal actions for his own personal gain undermine the integrity of our public institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland. “Public trust is a hallmark of our nation’s values, so corruption within a federal government agency is intolerable. This office, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to pursue and prosecute corruption at every level to ensure accountability and protect public trust.”'
Does this bishop recognize Church teaching that nations have the right to defend and uphold the security of their respective borders?
To maintain the commonweal?
Or does this bishop have tunnel vision, aligning himself with the radical left, defying the laws of the nation??
Keep in mind, Bishop-designate Michael Pham, replaced the heterodox, heretic, pro-homosexual "cardinal" McElroy.
The question begs: Will he follow in the footsteps of McElroy??
Time will tell...
"SAN DIEGO (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop-designate Michael Pham, who was recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV to lead the Diocese of San Diego, sent a letter encouraging diocesan clergy and faith leaders to appear at a federal courthouse later this month and “stand in solidarity” with migrants and refugees facing immigration hearings.
Posted to X by Rich Raho, the June 11 letter was signed by Pham and Auxiliary Bishops Ramon Bejanaro and Felipe Pulido. The bishop-designate invited all diocesan priests and lay faith leaders to commemorate “World Refugee Day” on June 20 by attending federal court hearings with migrants and refugees who are facing deportation. Since President Trump returned to the White House, the U.S. bishops have repeatedly made statements criticizing his administration’s immigration policies and in turn have been criticized for their alleged aiding of illegal immigration.
“We know that migrants and refugees find themselves in the difficult predicament of being called to appear, which is what the government asks of them, and then being given orders for expedited removal from our country,” Pham’s letter read.
“This group of priests and faith leaders will simply be present during this process as it has been experienced that the presence of faith leaders makes a difference in how the migrants are treated,” the letter continued. “Unfortunately, it will most likely not change the outcome.”
Pham’s letter also noted that Masses would be celebrated across the diocese “dedicated to our immigrant brothers and sisters.”
The letter notably makes no mention of whether the migrants whom the diocese’s clergy are urged to support entered the country illegally or have committed other crimes. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that nations have a right to control their borders and immigrants are obliged to respect the laws of the country in which they are received.
The diocese also recently condemned an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in San Diego without clarifying whether the targets of the raid were legal or illegal immigrants.
An immigrant himself, Pham fled Vietnam with his family at age 13 as the country suffered under Communism. They eventually relocated to San Diego, where Pham was ordained and has lived out his priesthood.
LifeSiteNews reached out to the Diocese of San Diego for comment but did not receive a response as of publication time.
Since Trump began his second non-consecutive term in January, several American bishops, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), have spoken out against his immigration policies. The USCCB, along with Catholic Charities, has also been sharply criticized for its alleged aiding of illegal immigration.
Catholic Charities manages the day-to-day care for many unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and, along with the USCCB, has received a whopping $449 million from the U.S. government to shelter and transport unaccompanied immigrant children over the years.
Shortly after returning to office, Trump signed the executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” that stipulated the removal of foreign nationals in violation of immigration laws and the review of funds to NGOs, including the USCCB and Catholic Charities, that support or provide services to illegal aliens.
Shortly after signing that order, the Trump administration issued a major blow to both organizations by placing a 90-day freeze on foreign aid dispersed through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides significant funding along with other NGOs backing abortion and the “LGBTQ” agenda.
The USCCB responded to the freeze by suing the administration over the previously committed funds. The State Department, in turn, canceled its multimillion-dollar refugee resettlement contracts with the USCCB, prompting the USCCB to end its migrant resettlement contracts with the government."
End of article...
Pray for strength and honor!
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...
"(LifeSiteNews) — The land of the prophets is soaked again in blood, and men speak of war while forgetting the justice of God. But the true war is not of flesh and blood, “but against principalities and powers, and the rulers of the world of this darkness” (Eph. 6:12).
The Church must not be silent. She must cry out with the voice of her Lord: “Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
Let not your hearts be hardened by nationalism, vengeance, or fear. Neither Israel nor Iran is innocent, and neither are the nations who arm them. But more than their weapons, it is their sins that provoke the just wrath of Heaven.
The Lord has said: “I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord” (Zeph. 1:17).
The solution is not military might, nor fragile treaties, but repentance. Let the Church raise her voice and call all peoples to fast, to weep, and to turn again to the Lord. For Christ alone is our peace, who hath reconciled us in His Blood (cf. Eph. 2:14-16).
I call upon all of the faithful to pray for the conversion of all Jews and Muslims and all those who know not the Lord and the true faith, for the sword that matters is not of iron, but the Word of God which pierces the heart.
And I speak to all earthly leaders in positions of power: Woe to you who make alliances but not by the Spirit of God. The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, and you shall not escape. “Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish from the way when His wrath shall be kindled in a short time” (Ps. 2:12).
“Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands … for the Son of Man cometh at an hour that you know not” (Luke 12:35, 40).
In the love of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
(I'm still trying to figure out why the silence of the U.S. bishops regarding the Bishop Strickland fiasco...
Why did none of the non-traditional Catholic apologists -- including the U.S. Bishops -- support and stand up for Bishop Strickland?
Why did non-traditional Cardinal Prevost (now Leo XIV) resist to the face Pope Bergoglio for the injustice of firing Bishop Strickland?
Why are non-traditional Catholic apologists afraid to call a spade a spade?
Whom -- or what creature -- do non-traditional Catholics -- whether apologists or bishops, worship?)
******
Where has all the money gone -- in the billions! -- of taxpayer monies, regarding the millions of illegal aliens that have entered the country defying our laws and committing heinous crimes against American citizens, especially young girls and women?
And open question: what is a hypocrite?
The following article will answer that question and more...
"Catholic Bishops too often exploit the emotional aspects of poverty and hunger in order to change the subject from the massive problems associated with mass immigration."
"Although evenPope Leo XIV acknowledges that mass immigration is a “huge problem,“ a recent “Pastoral Note to Migrants” issued by Michigan’s Catholic bishops is an embarrassing combination of fallacy, contradiction, doctrinal subversion, begged questions, conflict of interest, and hypocrisy.
To start, the letter from the bishops ignores the elephant in the room: the violation of immigration law is a crime. Since the bishops subsequently claim that “The Catholic Church affirms the rule of law….” they must prove that current immigration law is unjust if they seek to continue supporting mass immigration in violation of the law.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 2241 lays out the proper disposition of immigrants to their new country and the right of a receiving country to determine the conditions for entry. Furthermore, the Catholic social teaching of Pope St. John Paul II urged the sincere participation of citizens in the cultural, economic, and social life of a civil community—not merely taking advantage of promises of free stuff (transportation, health care, food, services, housing) without contributing anything. To ignore this balance is an injustice to working Americans who themselves may be struggling.
When some newcomers seek to subvert the existing legal system by substituting Sharia or by illegally voting in a presidential election, how is it not reprehensible? Adding insult to injury, Catholic Charities supports “crucial care” funding that includes free chartered flights into the country for so-called asylum seekers—people who may never have thought to enter the United States without such services. Bishop Emeritus Joseph Strickland pointed out that 80 percent of immigrants would not qualify for asylum or refugee status. Even worse, Catholic Charities’ free legal advice includes instruction on how to remain silent when questioned by immigration authorities. Is this honorable?
Instead of addressing these pertinent issues, the bishops decided to change the subject and exploit the emotional aspects of poverty and hunger. This move was completely unnecessary because assistance to those suffering from genuine hunger and thirst can just as easily be provided in one’s country of origin without the social disruption, risk, and high cost of intercontinental travel required by immigration. Moreover, the immigrant assistance addressed in CCC 2241 is itself limited to “those who cannot have a means of livelihood in their country of origin.” Given the lack of documentation for the vast flood of immigrants, was there even an attempt to determine how many really suffered such a fate?
The exploitation of emotion-laden words like “empathize,” “anxiety,” and “fear” not only obscures the illegitimacy of their position but it is entirely one-sided (i.e., card stacking, an informal fallacy). Why don’t the bishops extend the same attitude to the thousands of U.S. citizens whose properties along the border and elsewhere are overrun by waves of immigrants lured by promises of free stuff? Why no empathy for taxpayers, the victims of child- and sex-trafficking (vastly increased by this policy), and those whose neighborhoods have been transformed by the overwhelming incursion of immigrants?
Current Immigration Law and Tacit Deception
The bishops urged elected officials to “work for a humane immigration system.” The tacit assumption here is that the lawful immigration process that Trump seeks to restore (which Democrats abandoned), is somehow inhumane. But that begs the question: Compared to what? The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965—in effect for 60 years—is widely recognized as one of the world’s most radically accommodating to immigrants. It has been long criticized as too generous—transforming the social fabric of the country by permitting a vast influx of immigrants who neither understand nor value America’s unique freedoms.
So, why assume that a decades-old policy is inhumane? This is particularly galling when Vatican City itself increased its own restrictions, fines, and imprisonment penalties for unauthorized entry on December 19, 2024: “Anyone convicted of illegal entry will be banned from entering Vatican territory for a period of up to 15 years.” Hypocrisy seems to have found a home with Michigan’s bishops on this issue.
Subsidiarity Ignored
Catholic social teaching is grounded in the concept of subsidiarity (CCC 1883-1885, 2209). This means that the smallest, most local social institution (usually the family) should resolve problems first. Why? Because the institutions closest to, most intimate with, and most likely to understand all of the details and parties involved are best equipped to get the job done successfully, efficiently, and with minimal disruption.
Along with subsidiarity comes a warning: larger, more remote social institutions must not interfere with the primacy of local social units. Knowing this, why do the bishops take the opposite approach? In effect, they are prioritizing a vast, faceless, remote bureaucracy that is itself funded by the most massive tax-and-spend bureaucracy in the history of mankind (the U.S. government)—not to mention its copycats in Lansing. And the bishops don’t even offer the thinnest tissue of an excuse for violating this principle.
Human Agency vs. Ideology
At a more profound level, the Michigan bishops failed to acknowledge the vital distinction between two fundamentally opposed methods for financing “charitable assistance”:
Authentic charity: the voluntary giving by individuals from their own justly acquired property.
Fake charity: the provision of funds that were first extracted from taxpayers under threat of government-initiated violence.
The government-provided resources used by Catholic Charities are not authentic charity. These resources were seized under threat of violence against the people who provide them. Christians have always recognized the importance of free choice (human agency) in making decisions to engage in virtuous versus sinful behavior—whether the choice is to make a commitment to Christ (conversion) or to give to those in need. If Catholics refuse to support the programs of Catholic Charities at a level these bureaucrats desire, the tax-cattle should not be compelled to make up the difference.
Christ never taught us to rob Peter to pay Paul. How can Michigan’s bishops fail to make this vital distinction? As a result, they leave themselves open to unflattering speculation about possible sources for their opinion—whether in ignorance, greed, envy, a desire for public praise, or a collectivist political philosophy held in preference to the Gospel.
Conflicts of Interest and Motivation
At last, we come to a possible motive for the bishops’ letter: love of money. The Catholic Church and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), whose prayer is appended to the bishops’ letter, receive enormous piles of cash to participate in illegal mass immigration and settlement in the United States. Figures range from the $100 million cited by Vice President Vance in a CBS interview to the nearly $2.9 billion received by Catholic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) over the past four years. Bishop Strickland also noted that two-thirds of Catholic Charities’ spending is from government sources—that is, not donated voluntarily.
All of this hints at a massive conflict of interest. It may even explain the bishops’ preference for President Biden’s policy over President Trump’s. At the same time, the bishops were silent about Biden’s ability to receive the Eucharist despite his stand on abortion. Does this line of thinking help explain why the bishops believe it is so important to be popular with some groups but not others? There’s a lot of cash on the table, and it is difficult to ignore its impact on the bishops’ motivations. Consequently, one can’t help but ask the following questions:
Is the appeal made by Michigan bishops really in line with Christ’s teachings and those of the Catholic Church?
To the degree that the bishops sought to gain access to wealth extracted for them by the federal government, don’t they resemble the scandalous money changers that Christ evicted from the temple courts as he overturned their tables and benches?
As a Republican candidate for Michigan Attorney General and former superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit, I am steadfastly committed to upholding the rule of law and its impartial enforcement—a principle rooted in both justice and order. I call on the bishops to do the same."
Kevin Kijewski is an attorney in Birmingham, Michigan and is seeking the Republican nomination for Michigan Attorney General. He also is the former superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Archdiocese of Denver. Among his degrees, he earned his Doctor of Law from Michigan State University and his Master of Education from the University of Notre Dame.
Pray for strength and honor!
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...
