WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The Episcopal “bishop” who used an inaugural prayer service to lecture new President Donald Trump about left-wing “social justice” ideology was speaking for more than just personal sensibilities or left-wing ideals when pushing back on the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, a New York Post investigation has uncovered.
During the Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral last month, Bishop Mariann Budde admonished Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” due to his return to office, including so-called “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families.”
“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land,” she declared. “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals ‒ they they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
Vice President J.D. Vance previously responded to similar comments from left-wing Catholic voices, who equate returning illegal immigrants to their home countries with abandonment of Christian charity.
“As an American leader, but also just as an American citizen, your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens,” Vance said. “It doesn’t mean that you hate people from outside of your own borders, but there is this old school – and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way – you love your family, and then you love neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
On January 31, the New York Post reported that Episcopal Migration Ministry (EMM), an arm of the Episcopal Church that contracts with the federal government to resettle migrants and refugees, received $53 million in taxpayer dollars in 2023 from the resettlement of just 3,600 people, and while the price tag for the following year is not yet available, it almost doubled the number of migrants in 2024, to 6,400.
“Unlike everyday immigrants, these new arrivals receive government assistance and, most importantly, are immediately eligible for all forms of welfare, such as Medicaid and cash assistance, on the same basis as a US citizen,” the Post reports. “Further, they can immediately sponsor friends and relatives under a recent Biden expansion of the refugee resettlement program.”
Notably, EMM gets a larger payout for resettling refugees “experiencing social or psychological difficulties,” including “LGBTQ” status, thanks to the Obama-era “Preferred Communities” program.
“The Episcopal Church also earns a commission for collecting on travel loans made to refugees resettled by EMM,” the Post adds. “Here’s how it works: The U.S. taxpayer funds the International Organization for Migration, which loans money for airfare for the refugee’s flight to America. If the refugee pays the interest-free loan back, the church (not EMM) pockets 25% of the money. If the loan is not paid back, no one is the worse off, except the taxpayer.”
The findings shine a troublingly mercenary light on a position commonly presented as a simple matter of compassion by the mainstream press. But the Episcopal Church is by no means unique in this regard, and in fact its payday was a fraction of the $449 million that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Charities have received for helping settle unaccompanied migrant children.