Taking the Catholic Pulse
  • John Allen Jr.
    • John Allen Jr.
    • Charles Collins
    • Elise Ann Allen
    • John Lavenburg
    • Fr. Jeff Kirby
    • Nirmala Carvalho
    • Charles Camosy
    • Eduardo Campos Lima
    • Paulina Guzik
    • Claire Page
    • Vatican
    • U.S.
    • UK and Ireland
    • Middle East
    • Americas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • Podcast
    • Last Week in the Church
  • Support Us
  • About Us
    • Contact Details
    • Advertising
    • Email Updates

  

    

       

    

Crux
© 2023 Crux Catholic Media, Inc.
Privacy and Cookie Policy
CruxTaking the Catholic Pulse
  • About Crux
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising
  • Videos
  • Support Us
Podcast:
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher
  • Amazon Music
  • Google Podcasts
  • TuneIn
  • Quick Links

  • Currents News
  • The Tablet
  • DeSales Media Group in the Diocese of Brooklyn
  • Angelus News
  • The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM
  • Catholic Standard
  • Catholic TV
Latest
Pope Francis leaves hospital to return to Vatican for Holy Week

At U.S. Capitol, Christians protest budget cuts

By Lauren Markoe
Apr 2, 2017
|Religion News Service
Share
At U.S. Capitol, Christians protest budget cuts

Christian leaders protest the federal budget cuts President Trump has proposed during a demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol on March 29, 2017. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Joseph Molieri/Bread for the World.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With ashes on their foreheads, sackcloth draped around their necks, and the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop, Christian leaders used the words “evil” and “immoral” to describe the federal budget cuts President Trump has proposed and many Republican lawmakers favor. “It is a time for lamentation,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, explaining the symbols of grief the clergy brought to Capitol Hill on Wednesday (March 29).

Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Christian nonprofit that works to combat hunger, gathered with more than two dozen representatives of national churches outside the Capitol complex for a day of protest.

They said their understanding of the Bible compels them to speak out against planned reductions in programs that protect the poor and the environment, provide foreign aid and fund the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

How can we tolerate cuts to the civil rights division, asked the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-chair of the National African American Clergy Network, “at a time when hate has gone on a rampage in America?

”Trump’s budget blueprint, released earlier this month, calls for deep cuts in social spending and for a significant budget increase for the military. The spending bills that make up the actual federal budget are voted upon by the House and Senate.

After taking turns at the podium, clergy and lay supporters walked to the Senate side of the Capitol, where they placed a waist-high wooden cross on the grass and prayed for the nation’s vulnerable and the strength to confront lawmakers with whom they disagree.

“We ask that you would give us courage, that you would give us boldness, that you would help us to speak truth to power,” the Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune prayed on behalf of the gathering.

“There cannot be a budget that puts children in danger by defunding after-school programs,” continued Copeland-Tune, head of the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative. “Empower us as we leave this space and go forth to meet with our members of Congress.”

Together, three times, the group sang the hymn “Ubi Caritas,” which translates to “Live in Charity,” and they lifted their arms toward the Capitol dome in a closing prayer.

The coalition of faith leaders, which calls itself the “Circle of Protection,” planned an afternoon of lobbying House and Senate members representing both parties.

Several in the group — which includes representatives from Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, and black churches — noted that these denominations often differ from one another on doctrine and tone.

But they are united on the biblical mandate to care for the vulnerable. Many times they recited from the Gospel of Matthew 25:3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, thanked Rep. Joe Kennedy — a Democrat from Massachusetts and the only lawmaker to attend the event — for invoking the verse during the debate earlier this month over the failed GOP health care bill.

“In times of division and discourse in our government, our faith steadies us,” Kennedy, who is Catholic, told the gathered clergy. “It is our connective thread, and a common compass.”

Share

Latest Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Popular

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Week in the Church
Last Week in the Church
Keep Crux Independent
Keep Crux Independent

For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux.

Support Us
Crux
Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

Tuesdays on

Tuesdays on YouTube
Tuesdays on YouTube
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • StitcherStitcher
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • TuneIn

Crux. Anytime. Anywhere.

Today’s top stories delivered straight into your inbox.

Miami archdiocese apologizes after brawl between Catholic, Jewish schools

  • Apr 1
  • John Lavenburg
Maria Consuelo Palapa weaves a palm frond in a traditional Mexican design with help from her son Omar, 7, at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. The parishioner at this Catholic church, where the palms will be sold as a fundraiser and blessed at Palm Sunday services this weekend, said she joined the volunteer workshop “to first help the church, and to teach the child my traditions.” (Credit: Giovanna Dell’Orto/AP.)

Palm weaving workshops join faith, culture for Palm Sunday

  • Mar 31
  • Giovanna Dell'Orto

Kansas moves to help survivors pursue child sex abuse claims

  • Mar 31
  • John Hanna
Navy Chaplain Lt. Cmdr. Ben Garrett counsels a sailor in his quarters on the USS Bataan on Monday, March 20, 2023 at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va. One of the chaplains' roles aboard the ship is help sailors deal with stress Navy life brings. (Credit: John C. Clark/AP.)

U.S. Navy deploys more chaplains for suicide prevention

  • Mar 31
  • Giovanna Dell'Orto

Pope Francis leaves hospital to return to Vatican for Holy Week

  • Apr 1
  • Crux Staff

Lourdes bishop ponders removal of Rupnik mosaics in light of abuse claims

  • Apr 1
  • Elise Ann Allen
Cameroon military deployed to protect schools and the population in Bamenda, July 21, 2019. (Credit: M. Kindzeka/VOA.)

Cameroon: Despite escalating violence, archbishop says reconstruction plan is working

  • Apr 1
  • Ngala Killian Chimtom

Miami archdiocese apologizes after brawl between Catholic, Jewish schools

  • Apr 1
  • John Lavenburg

Will disowning ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ reopen a theological can of worms?

  • Mar 31
  • John L. Allen Jr.

Miami archdiocese apologizes after brawl between Catholic, Jewish schools

  • Apr 1
  • John Lavenburg

Lourdes bishop ponders removal of Rupnik mosaics in light of abuse claims

  • Apr 1
  • Elise Ann Allen

Pope Francis visits sick children, baptizes infant in hospital

  • Mar 31
  • Elise Ann Allen