EWTN has this story on the Justice Department v Southern Poverty Law Center

 

Southern Poverty Law Center indicted for fraudulently paying informants inside extremist groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled some traditionalist Catholic groups as hate groups over views related to gender, sexuality, and marriage. No Catholic groups were mentioned in the indictment.

A gavel rests atop a pile of hundred-dollar bills. | Credit: RomanR/Shutterstock

By Tessa Gervasini

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that has classified certain Catholic organizations as hate groups, with multiple fraud charges for alleged use of paid informants to monitor racist organizations.

SPLC, an organization that reports it fights “white supremacy and various forms of injustice,” faces charges including 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. SPLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While there has been overlap with Catholic advocacy over the years on social and economic justice issues such as racial justice and advocacy concerning conditions in immigration detention centers, the SPLC has also taken positions that many Catholic institutions strongly dispute. SPLC has labeled some Catholic organizations as “hate groups.”

The U.S. attorney for the middle district of Alabama issued the April 21 indictment. The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service investigated.

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public," Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said.

While "vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups," SPLC "actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups,” Patel said.

According to the indictment, in the 1980s the SPLC began operating a network of individuals who were associated with, or who infiltrated, violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Donors were unaware that donations were funding the organizers of the same racist and extremist groups that the SPLC reported it was denouncing.

Prosecutors said that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals associated with various extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and United Klans of America. No Catholic groups were mentioned in the indictment.

According to the indictment, the scheme was intended to obtain money via donations through materially false representations and omissions about what the funds would be used for.

In order to pay the individuals, the SPLC allegedly opened bank accounts connected to a series of fake entities such as “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse” that were used to send money from donors to informants. The SPLC then made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts, the indictment alleges.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche when announcing the indictment. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”

U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson said this "kind of deception undermines public trust and social cohesion.”

Patel added that it is an “ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.” The DOJ reported a conviction will result in the forfeiture of financial gains from the alleged illegal activities.

Labeling Catholics and Christian groups

In recent years, SPLC has been accused of unfairly labeling Christian organizations as “radical.”

In July 2025, the House Judiciary Committee found documents that revealed the FBI “put more federal law-enforcement resources into surveilling Catholics than previously known.”

The committee’s report found that several internal FBI documents used the terms “radical traditionalist catholic” or “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic” between 2009 and 2023. An FBI internal database contained at least 13 documents that used these terms that all cited the SPLC.

Also, in 2021, critics of SPLC said the organization had become extreme after it released its 2020 “census of hate groups,” which included numerous pro-life and family organizations such as the Ruth Institute.

After being classified by SPLC as a hate group, a spokesperson for the Ruth Institute said, “our credit card processing company dropped us. Businesses refused to work with us. People scattered, thinking we were radioactive.”

“What the Southern Poverty Law Center did to us was a mere inconvenience in comparison to the harm they have done to our country. The indiscriminate application of the ‘hate’ label, the ratcheting up of rhetoric — all this has contributed to the polarized and toxic atmosphere we now experience,” according to Jennifer Roback Morse, Ruth Institute president.

Along with the Ruth Institute, Christian organizations Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy organization defending religious liberty, and Family Research Council, a nonprofit promoting family values, were also both designated as “Anti-LGBTQ hate groups" by SPLC for their stances on marriage and family.

With the "shutdown" nearing an end, Catholic groups still concerned about health insurance subsidies

 

As deal to end shutdown advances, Catholic groups urge action on health insurance costs

written by Kate Scanlon 

The U.S. Capitol building after the U.S. Senate advances a bill to end the government shutdown in Washington Nov. 10, 2025. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A key procedural vote in the Senate signaled the beginning of a funding deal that may bring about the end of the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. But Catholic groups expressed concerns that the potential deal leaves the matter of health insurance subsidies to a future vote with an uncertain outcome and just as premiums are skyrocketing.

The Senate voted 60-40 late Nov. 9 to advance the House-passed stopgap funding legislation, which lawmakers indicated they will use as a vehicle for a funding deal. The potential deal would involve three full-year appropriations bills to fund certain departments through the end of the fiscal year, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture which manages the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is a major part of the nation’s social safety net that provides food support for 42 million Americans and has already been disrupted under the shutdown. A continuing resolution would then fund the rest of the government at status-quo spending levels through Jan. 30.

“After 40 long days, I’m hopeful we can bring this shutdown to an end,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in remarks on the floor shortly before the vote.

Impasse over health insurance subsidies

Republicans and Democrats previously reached a stalemate in October over the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s health care law also known as “Obamacare.” The subsidies, or tax credits, are used by lower-to-middle-income households to reduce their out-of-pocket costs for enrolling in the program. It is set to expire soon, and Democrats are seeking an extension.

Health policy researcher KFF published an analysis Sept. 30 showing ACA marketplace premiums are expected to spike an average of 114% in 2026 for those relying on health insurance subsidies unless they are extended. A family of four with a household income of $40,000 is expected to pay $840 more annually, while a family of four with a household income of $110,000 is expected to pay more than $3,200. 

KFF found approximately 24.3 million Americans access health care through the ACA marketplace, and almost 22.4 million Americans receive subsidies in the form of advanced premium tax credits.

“Democrats have wanted to lower costs,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in his own remarks on the floor Nov. 9. “But Republicans have fought us every step of the way. We gave Republicans not one, not two, but three chances this year to extend the ACA premium tax credits. Republicans said no every time.”

Lucas Swanepoel, senior director of government relations at Catholic Health Association of the United States, told OSV News, “We are glad that members of Congress are beginning to discuss a path to reopen the government and ensure critical safety net and government programs for those who need them most. However, if extending the enhanced premium tax credits is not included in the final agreement, Congress’s work is not done.”

“Open enrollment is already underway, and families across the country are experiencing real sticker shock as they shop for coverage,” Swanepoel said. “For households already stretched thin by rising costs in food, housing and the cost of living, dramatically higher health care premiums mean millions of Americans will face the real choice of deciding whether to buy health care coverage or food to feed their families. As Catholic health care providers, this is not a choice that any person should have to make.” 

Loss of health insurance could affect millions

A substantial number of Catholic households are affected by the government shutdown and rising health care costs pricing out families. Updated Pew Research data released in 2025 found 36% of Catholic households make under $50,000, including 18% making under $30,000.  

The federal poverty line for a family of four in the U.S. is $32,150 in 2025.

The Senate deal was met with pushback among Schumer’s party as the health insurance subsidies were a key part of the Democrats’ position about funding bills. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., an independent who caucuses with Democrats, called it “a very bad night” in a video posted on social media.

Laurie Carafone, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice advocacy group, said in a Nov. 10 statement, “The American people are worried for good reason: without the extension of the ACA health care premium subsidies, millions of people will lose their health insurance, and it is projected 50,000 people will die every year.”

A letter from public health and policy researchers at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania issued earlier this year warned that 51,000 Americans annually could die as a result of disenrolling from Medicaid and the Affordable Health Care marketplace, cuts to nursing home staffing rules, and the expiration of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits.

A policy brief from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities from Aug. 27 detailed the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s findings that as many as 15 million Americans will lose health coverage by 2034 due to $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and ACA marketplaces from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted by Congress this year and the expected expiration of ACA premium subsidies.

Catholic positions set out on government shutdown

Swanepoel added, “Health care is a fundamental human right — not a privilege reserved for the few. Our leaders have a responsibility to ensure that every person has access to affordable, reliable coverage. Extending these tax credits isn’t just a necessary step — it’s a vital safeguard for millions of families who depend on stable, affordable health care.”

Teaching set out by the U.S. Catholic bishops in their 1993 “Framework for Comprehensive Healthcare Reform” declared that “every person has a right to adequate health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons who are made in the image and likeness of God.”

Catholic leaders and ministries have expressed concern about other aspects of the government shutdown that affects the vulnerable, notably the lapse in SNAP federal food assistance, which 1 in 8 Americans rely on. 

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released late Oct. 28 the bishops are “deeply alarmed that essential programs that support the common good, such as SNAP, may be interrupted.”

Catholic Charities USA, the network organization dedicated to carrying out the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States, recently announced a national fundraising effort to provide an emergency supply of food to Catholic Charities agencies around the country.

Carafone added, “It is our government’s moral obligation to make sure Americans can eat, work, and access health care in this, the world’s richest nation.”

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon. OSV News national news editor Peter Jesserer Smith contributed to this report.

Many Catholic ministries preparing to aid the poor during U.S. Governmental Shutdown

 

Catholic groups serving the poor call for action to end federal government shutdown

written by Kate Scanlon

A file photo shows a homeless person trying to stay warm at the entrance of a Metro station near the White House in Washington. (OSV News photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Congressional lawmakers failed to pass legislation to fund the federal government, resulting in a federal government shutdown at the end of September. Catholic groups that serve the poor urged lawmakers to end gridlock. 

A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass a budget or if that budget is not signed into law by the president. Some types of essential government services are exempt, including Social Security payments to older adults. But many other functions of government are suspended during shutdowns, such as paychecks for government workers, including members of the armed services. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are subject to furloughs, meaning they must stop working and will not be paid until the federal government reopens.

Both Republican and Democratic proposals that would have funded the government failed in the Senate in the hours before their 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30 deadline, resulting in a shutdown beginning at midnight Oct. 1. 

Government shutdown follows Senate stalemate on Affordable Care Act subsidies

Republicans and Democrats were at a stalemate over enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s health care law also known as “Obamacare.” The subsidies, or tax credits, are used by lower-to-middle-income households to reduce their out-of-pocket costs for enrolling in the program. It is set to expire soon, and Democrats are seeking an extension.

Health policy researcher KFF published an analysis Sept. 30 showing ACA marketplace premiums are expected to spike an average 114% in 2026 for those relying on subsidies unless they are extended. A family of four with a household income of $40,000 is expected to pay $840 more annually, while a family of four with a household income of $110,000 is expected to pay more than $3,200. Approximately 24 million Americans access healthcare through the ACA marketplace.

But President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have sought to tie the issue to immigration, alleging Democrats are seeking to fund health care for those present in the U.S. without legal status. However, immigrants without legal status are not eligible for the subsidies, although the Democrats’ proposal would have given some federally funded health care eligibility back to “lawfully present” authorized migrants. 

Catholic entities note government shutdown can harm individuals, families

The U.S. bishops and Catholic entities that advocate for, or work with, people who are poor and vulnerable in the U.S. have generally cautioned against government shutdowns.

The U.S. bishops have also emphasized that the Catholic Church, the largest single non-governmental provider of health care in the world, teaches that universal access to health care is a right that is rooted in the inherent dignity of every human person. In a letter to lawmakers in February, Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' domestic justice committee, said every human being has the right to “right to those necessities needed to live, found a family and flourish.” 

“It is in this reality that we recognize that the right to health care is a fundamental necessity for the preservation of life and human flourishing,” he said, referencing Pope Francis’ reminder that “health is not a luxury, it is for all.”

Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the USCCB, told OSV News in a written statement, “A government shutdown harms families and individuals who rely on federal services.”  

“We hope lawmakers will work earnestly to come to a bipartisan agreement that ends the government shutdown as quickly as possible,” she said. 

Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, said in a statement, “The reverberations from this latest episode of crippling partisanship will be felt far beyond the halls of Washington.”

“Government shutdowns take a particular toll on the most vulnerable among us, from hungry children and parents living paycheck to paycheck to seniors struggling to afford medications and groceries,” she said. “Vital government programs that rely on administrative processing could experience cascading delays during the shutdown, disrupting critical services such as food assistance and housing for people in need.”

She said Catholic Charities agencies will continue to carry out their mission, filling in the gaps where possible, in obedience to the Gospel. But she warned,” If leaders from both parties do not put an end to this unnecessary shutdown as soon as possible, even more Americans will fall into poverty, and the recovery from this setback could take months or even years.”

Sister Mary Haddad, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and president and CEO of Catholic Health Association of the United States, also urged Congress to act in a statement.

“A government shutdown jeopardizes the health and stability of millions of families — especially those living paycheck to paycheck and communities that depend on essential services. The ripple effects of inaction extend across the economy, deepening hardship for those already most vulnerable,” she said.

Sister Haddad explained in her statement that “critical health programs” were at stake, among them access to essential health services via telemedicine, hospitals endangered by Medicaid cuts and burdened by disproportionate payments while caring for underserved communities, and the ACA tax credits relied upon by millions of families to afford their health care premiums.

“When partisan gridlock leads to a shutdown, those who are poor, sick, and marginalized suffer most — precisely those we are called to protect,” she said. “Failure to act — whether by not funding the government or by allowing critical health programs to lapse — will result in higher health care costs, the loss of coverage for millions, and damaging disruption to the delivery of care in underserved American communities.”

Laurie Carafone, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice advocacy group, called for a bipartisan funding bill to protect health care for those at risk of losing it. She said it was “irresponsible” for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to cancel the House’s work instead of dealing with the crisis. 

“Health care is a human right, and Members of Congress chose to shut down the federal government rather than protect affordable health care,” she said in a statement Oct. 1, adding, “With Affordable Care Act enrollment beginning in less than a month, there is no time to waste.”

Government shutdown procedures begin

The White House Office of Management and Budget cast blame for the shutdown on Democrats in its Sept. 30 guidance to federal agencies, directing them to begin their shutdown procedures.

“It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,” the memo said. “Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities. We will issue another memorandum indicating that government functions should resume once the President has signed a bill providing for appropriations.”

In a joint Oct. 1 statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, pointed to Republicans as responsible.

“After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the statement said. “Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. But we need a credible partner.”

“The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown,” it added. 

The previous most recent government shutdown took place during Trump’s first term, which started on Dec. 22, 2018, and lasted until Jan. 25, 2019, resulting in a 35-day shutdown. At the time, it was the longest government shutdown in more than four decades. 

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.

Federal government rule changes could be devastating for dioceses dependent on foreign-born Priests; a New Jersey diocese fights back

 

NJ diocese, priests

sue federal government 

over religious worker visa

rule change

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of Paterson, N.J., is seen participating in the Via Crucis, or the Way of the Cross, near the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on Good Friday, April 7, 2023. The Paterson Diocese and five of its diocesan priests filed a lawsuit against federal agencies Aug. 8, 2024, in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., arguing a rule change in religious worker visas means the foreign-born priests are in the position of having to "count the days until they have no lawful choice but to abandon their congregations" in the U.S. (OSV News

(OSV News) — A New Jersey diocese and several priests are suing the federal government over a rule change in religious worker visas, in a case that highlights the perfect storm created by the nation’s shifting immigration policies and the Catholic Church in the United States’ increased reliance on foreign-born clergy amid a downward trend of domestic vocations to the priesthood.

The Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and five of its diocesan priests filed the lawsuit Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. Four of the priests — Father Regin Nico Dela Cruz Quintos, Father Joemin Kharlo Chong Parinas, Father Armando Diaz Vizcara Jr. and Father Joseph Anthony Aguila Mactal — are citizens of the Philippines. The fifth priest, Father Manuel Alejandro Cuellar Ceballos, is a Colombian national.

Named in the suit as defendants are the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, along with their respective heads, Secretary Antony Blinken, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Director Ur Mendoza Jaddou.

The suit alleges that the agencies and their leaders have placed the priests in the position of having to “count the days until they have no lawful choice but to abandon their congregations” in the U.S.

At issue is what the diocese’s legal counsel described in an Aug. 16 statement as an unlawful and unconstitutional alteration of how visa availability is calculated for certain noncitizens, which creates “profound immigration delays for noncitizen religious workers.”

Under U.S. immigration law, two types of visas are available for religious workers. The employment-based EB-4, or special immigrant religious worker, visa permits qualified religious workers to immigrate to the U.S on a permanent basis and to potentially become citizens. The R-1 visa, by contrast, allows religious workers to enter the country on a temporary basis and to perform services for up to five years.

However, in March 2023, the State Department announced a sudden change in the allocation of EB-4 visas, thereby significantly lengthening for most applicants the time required to qualify.

In an explanatory note about the revision on its website, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops observed, “One indirect impact of this change is that many more religious workers on a nonimmigrant religious worker (R-1) visa, who might otherwise have sought adjustment of status under the EB-4 category, will be forced to leave the United States upon reaching the maximum five-year period of stay allowed for an R-1 visa.”

In March, President Joe Biden extended the EB-4 non-minister special immigrant religious worker program through Sept. 30, although those entering the U.S. solely as ministers, along with their spouses and children, are not affected by the sunset date.

In its legal filing, the diocese noted that the R-1 visas for four of the priests will expire in May 2025, while that of a fifth will lapse in April 2026.

The diocese alleges the rule change by the federal government was “arbitrary, capricious, misguided, unlawful, conducted without notice or comment and … an incorrect interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

The complaint also holds that the federal government’s “implementation of immigration law discriminates against religious employers and favors nonreligious employers,” explained the diocese in its Aug. 16 statement.

Violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, the Congressional Review Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment are all alleged in the lawsuit.

“Our Catholic communities rely on our international clergy to shepherd our flocks and nourish their spiritual journey,” said Paterson Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney in the diocese’s statement. “The State Department’s change to the regulations threatens our mission to serve our communities.”

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, said during the U.S. bishops’ spring 2024 general assembly in Louisville, Kentucky, that the religious worker visa issue “is only expected to worsen with time, if not addressed” — especially since close to 90% of the nation’s Catholic dioceses rely on foreign-born clergy and religious.

“This is simply not sustainable for our ministries — and it is especially devastating for parishes that will be left without a pastor when he is forced to depart the country at the end of his R-1 visa,” Bishop Seitz told the assembly.