Politics, Programs, and Protests: Catholic Relief Services in Vietnam, 1954-1975
Author(s)
Kauffman, Christopher J.
Abstract
In 1943, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s post-World War II planning to incorporate religious voluntary agencies into relief and recovery efforts, Catholic War Relief Services was established by the Catholic bishops’ National Catholic Welfare Conference. After 1955 it was renamed Catholic Relief Services (CRS). As a participant in the National War Fund, CRS was allotted 2.4 million dollars for immediate projects to respond to the needs of Polish refugees in Mexico and Palestine as well as other Catholic refugees and prisoners of war. Of course, CRS could not use the funds for ecclesiastical purposes or any kind of religious activity, but all funds were to go toward health and general-welfare projects. CRS was almost entirely dependent upon U.S. aid; it also received the funds collected in every diocese on Laetare Sunday that originated in a 1941 collection for overseas aid. Over the years Church World Service (which included the major Protestant denominations and the Orthodox Church) and the United Jewish Appeal collected funds on that same weekend, marking it a special time for reflection on the needs of the human family.
