Amid aid cuts, Catholic relief groups vow continued backing for Africa
Father Andreas Frick (left) and a CRS official during the SECAM plenary assembly in Rwanda held July 30 to Aug. 4, 2025. / Credit: ACI Africa
ACI Africa, Aug 5, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).
Overseas development agencies, including Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Misereor — the development agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany — have pledged their continued support for the Church and civil organizations in Africa amid foreign fund cuts as perpetrated by their native countries.
In solidarity messages with Catholic bishops in Africa during the 20th plenary assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the leadership of CRS and Misereor urged the bishops to support Church-based fundraising initiatives to fund development projects.
In his message during the July 30–Aug. 4 assembly held in Kigali, Rwanda, the director general of Misereor, Father Andreas Frick, regretted that the agency’s financial means are currently decreasing.
“Our work is funded by private donations as well as Church and public funds,” Frick said. “Since 2023, the German government has been cutting down the funds from tax revenues that are made available to the Churches for development cooperation purposes.”
Frick, of Germany’s Diocese of Aachen, added that the donations from German parishes have also been decreasing. With the decrease of funds in parishes and government cuts in taxes, he said, “we have to reduce Misereor’s financial commitments.”
For this reason, Frick told SECAM members: “It is thus all the more important that you support fundraising efforts in your local Churches. Misereor is already proactively raising this topic in our dialogue with partners.”
“At the same time, we want to reassure you that even with reduced financial means, Misereor will continue to cooperate with the Church and civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” he said at the five-day assembly.
Frick said that even if the organization is crippled financially, it will still offer support, explaining: “Cooperation is not merely of a financial nature; we will continue to cooperate well and in a future-oriented way.”
“Together, we should stand by the poor — independent of their ethnicity, gender, or religion — and work towards a better life for all with justice, peace, and integrity of creation,” he said. “Cooperating with the Church and civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will continue to be at the core of Misereor’s mandate.”
Even amid increasing challenges, Frick said, “it is all the more important to firmly hold on to the Gospel for all people and to trust in the message of Jesus of peace for all people.”
“The least we as Church and civil society actors can do is to remain at the side of the poor and marginalized, to jointly decry injustices, and to create room for dialogues to strengthen justice and peace, however difficult the situation,” he said.
SECAM’s 20th plenary assembly, under the theme “Christ: Source of Hope, Reconciliation, and Peace,” dedicated its efforts to building on what the 19th plenary assembly — held in July 2022 — mandated Africa’s Catholic bishops to accomplish.
In a separate Aug. 1 solidarity message to the Catholic bishops in Africa, the leadership of CRS, the humanitarian arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, thanked SECAM for the continued fraternal relationship, especially during the abrupt funding cut by the Donald Trump-led U.S. government.
The CRS leadership said the “new orientation brought about by the suspension of donations has significantly impacted organizations like ours that benefited from state subsidies.”
Acknowledging with appreciation the spiritual and financial support of partners, U.S. Catholics, and people of goodwill, the leadership of CRS said: “Our organization will continue to fulfill its part in accomplishing our joint mission of fostering the integral development of our peoples, contributing to a more just and more united world.”
Even amid financial constraints, CRS reaffirmed its “unconditional attachment to the values of Catholic social teaching” and pledged commitment to “always deliver quality service to all our brothers and sisters in humanity.”
“The African continent is, and will remain, one of our priorities. We assure you that we will continue, within the limits of available means, to support the Church of the continent through SECAM and its regional and national ramifications, with which we have developed very good collaboration,” CRS said.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.