Jesuit Refugee Service

We’ve received several requests concerning Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), asking if it is safe for Catholic donations. After a lengthy period of research, we must unfortunately report that JRS as an organization is NOT SAFE for Catholic giving because directly and through its partnerships, JRS promotes and provides contraception, supports Planned Parenthood sex-education programs and is pushing a homosexualist agenda.

BACKGROUND

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., established JRS in 1980 to aid displaced Vietnamese refugees following the Vietnam War. In 2000, JRS received official registration as a Vatican foundation.

JRS is a ministry of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and according to JRS the governing authority of the organizations falls:

“under the direct responsibility of the Superior General, Rev. Arturo Sosa Abascal SJ. JRS International Director, Br. Michael Schöpf SJ, is Father General’s delegate for the Society’s work with refugees and reports directly to him.”

What this means is that JRS is a formal function of the Society of Jesus, itself, so these actions by JRS are a reflection upon the entire order.

JRS’ leadership team is comprised of an international director and a deputy director, along with ten other regional directors, who are responsible for more local branches of the overall organization.

It is important to note that despite being broken into financially autonomous regions – meaning individual local branches of JRS maintain their own funding and budgeting – JRS makes it clear that it is “one organization.”  The unified nature of JRS as “one organization” is born out and made most manifest in the structure of its governance, meaning that the actions of regional JRS organizations directly reflect on the organization as a whole.

Summary of Findings

Jesuit Refugee Service violates Catholic moral teachings in the following ways:

• JRS Latin America and the Caribbean directly provides kits to refugees that include condoms. JRS is aware of the contents of these kits and specifically requests that contraceptives are included.
• JRS in Australia called for refugees to have access to “comprehensive adequate and accessible sexual and reproductive health services…including emergency contraception and abortion services.” It is also partnered with Family Planning NSW (FPNSW), a leading provider of contraception and major abortion promoter. JRS even hosted a speaker from FPNSW who talked about the “importance of the right to reproductive healthcare.”
• JRS Asia Pacific is directly pushing transgender activism with a feature article about a gender confused man.
• JRS USA is a dues-paying member of Interaction, a large alliance of NGO’s that is also vociferously pro-contraceptive. As a member of InterAction, JRS USA signed a 2019 document calling for increased spending in contraceptives. JRS USA also is a signatory on a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Compact that calls for homosexualist rights as well as demands that “gender affirming healthcare” is a mandatory part of healthcare benefits.

Direct Provision of Condoms

JRS Latin America and Caribbean has a major focus on providing aid to refugees fleeing from violence and persecution in Columbia. In accordance with this work, JRS ordered hygiene kits to give to refugees, wherein they itemized what they required to be contained within them.  We found that in many of these contracts, JRS specified that condoms be included in kits for both men and women. This means that JRS directly ordered and directly provided condoms for refugees in Columbia.

On the JRS Latin America and the Caribbean website is the following page (originally in Spanish) showing the contents of their hygiene kits from January – February of 2023.  After introducing the “Institutional Framework” of JRS’s operations and mission, JSR explains the nature of its contracts for these hygiene kits, saying:

“From the JRS we have set ourselves important challenges that challenge us to mitigate and correct the gaps that arise in the sectors of food security, housing, health and protection for the described population (without supplanting the State in the fulfillment of its function); access to protection for survivors of sexual and gender violence (SGBV), children, youth and families at risk, through the promotion of legal assistance, awareness-raising actions, the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid and support for the community integration of refugees and migrants. For this; JRS is interested in providing CLEANING AND HYGIENE KITS WITH A DIFFERENTIAL APPROACH AND PROTECTION KITS FOR WALKERS that allow solving the basic needs of migrants from Venezuela and/or victims of forced displacement who are willing to stay or in transit as walkers.”   (emphasis added)

In short, JRS is establishing that it is responsible for the creation of these kits, the contents within the kits, and their distribution to migrants.  Of note is the fact that one of the purposes of the kits is to address “access to protection for survivors of sexual and gender based violence.”  More on that in a moment.

JRS continues:

“To fulfill and obtain the objective and expected results, the JRS requires the hiring of one or more suppliers, who supply the following kits at the Binational office of Arauca.”

What this means is that JRS is taking full responsibility for the distribution of these kits with the contents identified in the chart immediately following.  In the very next section of this page, point number 3, “OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT: SUPPLY OF TOILET AND HYGIENE KITS WITH DIFFERENTIAL APPROACH AND PROTECTION FOR WALKERS IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF ARAUCA,” right at the top of the list are “condoms.” We used an automatic page translator to move from the original Spanish (where it said “condones”) to English.  Another Spanish word for condoms is “preservative,” which will be seen in another slide, shortly.

We found three more JRS contracts for the purchase of hygiene kits for refugees dated from April, May and July of 2023. Again, JRS demands the inclusion of condoms in these kits.

From the April contract (identified in Spanish as “preservative”):

The May contract indicates that the kits contain “caja de preservatives,” which means “box of condoms” in English:

The July contract is even more descriptive.  Next to the product identified as “condones,” the description box says (in English), “Condoms made with natural latex, smooth, anatomically shaped. Packaging x 3 units. Original factory packaging.”:

In addition to these kits, JRS Latin America and Caribbean boasted that it provided information on modern contraceptive methods to women in Columbia, stressing the “importance of family planning.”  Under the title, “We Build Safe and Protective Homes in Barrancabermeja,” JRS Latin America explained that in the beginning of 2022, they initiated a project to curb domestic violence.  JRS then explained (translated from Spanish):

“In addition, meetings were held where vital topics were addressed, such as loving and respectful parenting, gender roles and stereotypes, and family coexistence. These meetings were developed through recreational activities and spaces for dialogue, based on the experiences of the participants in their role as mothers and caregivers. This support allowed us to share experiences and practical tools to establish loving and responsible parenting, while promoting the creation of support networks based on empathy among the participants.

Likewise, a space was dedicated to providing information on contraceptive methods to all participating women. Through these talks, the importance of family planning and the exercise of conscious motherhood/fatherhood was highlighted. In this way, she helped women make informed decisions about their reproductive health.”

By its own admission, JRS in the Latin American and Caribbean region is most definitely dispensing condoms and promoting contraception.

Problems with JRS Australia

As indicated in the introduction, JRS Australia is leading the call for open access to contraception and abortion services while partnering with a contraception supplier and major abortion advocate.

In September of 2020, JRS Australia held a joint stakeholder consultation with another Australian refugee organization called the Harmony Alliance. As will be seen later, JRS has no business partnering with Harmony Alliance due to its devotion to contraception and abortion.  The consultation held by JRS Australia and the Harmony Alliance analyzed the outcomes of Australia’s “obligations” as determined by the United Nations’ Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  The Harmony Alliance provided a summary of the consultation, indicating that Australia isn’t doing enough to provide contraception and abortion services to women and transgender refugees.  In the summary, Harmony Alliance and JRS Australia state that through their partnership, they have prepared a “civil society response” and that their consultation will determine their input for the “CEDAW Shadow Follow-Up Report 2020.”  Under the heading, “Access to critical health and well-being services,” JRS Australia and the Harmony Alliance wrote:

Access to critical health and well-being services: The CEDAW committee recommended to guarantee that “all refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls who are under the responsibility of the State party have access to comprehensive, adequate and accessible sexual and reproductive health services and information, including to emergency contraception and abortion services, on its territory.” The CEDAW committee also recommended that “refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls have unconditional access to gender, age, culture and language-appropriate social, education, mental and physical health services on the territory of the State party”.

• • Australia is failing to provide adequate sexual and reproductive health, physical and mental health services to all asylum-seeking women and girls. In particular, those who are placed on temporary or bridging visas while waiting for their refugee status determination cannot access appropriate healthcare services.
  • Even when asylum seeking women and girls have access to public healthcare via Medicare, they are not provided age, culture and language appropriate information about their rights and availability of essential services.
  • Transgender women are often left out in provision of essential sexual and reproductive health services.
  • Asylum-seeking women’s and girls’ health and well-being is also undermined due to lack of childcare options available to them.

The recommendations from the Committee regarding “adequate sexual and reproductive health,” “access to appropriate healthcare services,” “rights and availability of essential services,” and “transgender” issues all fall under the inclusion of emergency contraception and abortion.  What this means is that what was recommended by the Committee cannot be construed as separate in any way from abortion and contraception.  At the end of the summary is the following recommendation:

“In view of the issues highlighted above, it is apparent that the Australian Government should strengthen measures to ensure safety and well-being of women and girls seeking asylum to fully meet its obligations under CEDAW.”

Given that JRS Australia was a party to this recommendation, it can only mean that JRS Australia is giving full-throated support for CEDAW’s pro-abortion and pro-contraception agenda.

But as indicated, JRS Australia should never have partnered with the Harmony Alliance anyway, considering its deep commitment to abortion and contraception.  As this report is about JRS and not the Harmony Alliance, a single example of Harmony Alliance’s work for abortion and contraception will suffice:

This screen-shot taken from the Harmony Alliance’s website on October 5, 2023 regarding Health Literacy gives a spotlight to a webinar it held on contraception, sterilization and abortion.

What follows are still images taken from the video that can be watched in full on Youtube:

This first screen capture from 4:45 into the video shows Dr. Tulat Uppal promoting intrauterine devices for contraception.

This next series of screenshots taken from 9:45 into the video shows the host asking Dr. Nisha Khot for information on abortion, which is callously described as a very simple procedure. She describes abortion as just “putting some instruments into the womb and we just empty out the contents of the womb.”

The Harmony Alliance isn’t the only rotten organization JRS Australia has partnered with.  From 2018-2021, JRS Australia has been identified as a partner with Family Planning NSW (FPNSW), whose name fully illustrates its commitment to abortion and contraception.  On page 122 of FPNSW’s Annual Report for 2020-2021, Jesuit Relief Services is listed among its partnerships for that year:

On page 30 of FPNSW’s Annual Report for 2019-2020 it explains the nature of the partnership it has with JSR Australia.  Under the heading, “Religious Leadership Project,” FPNSW wrote:

“The aim of the religious leaders’ project was to increase knowledge of reproductive and sexual health topics and awareness of Family Planning NSW services among people attending targeted religious congregations. The CALD Health Promotion team prioritised working with faith-based organisations with the aim to tailor community education packages to their communities.

The project has been conducted as planned. Relationships have been established with the Jesuit Refugee Service Australia, Lebanese Muslim Association and the Muslim Women’s Welfare of Australia. The team delivered education sessions on healthy relationships, consent, sexual health checks, puberty, menstruation and contraception. Additional contact has been made with other religious organisations to arrange community education sessions in the new financial year.

We will continue to foster these relationships with the aim of continuing to work with faith-based organisations in the future.”

On page 114 of FPNSW’s 2019-2020 Annual Report, Jesuit Refugee Services is identified as a partner.

FPNSW also lists Jesuit Refugee Services as a partner in its 2018-2019 Annual Report as well.

Family Planning NSW is all about sterilization, contraception and abortion, and as such, JSR has no business having any dealings with it by any stretch of the imagination.  Effectively a Planned Parenthood style sex clinic, FPNSW describes itself as:

“a leading provider of reproductive and sexual health services. We are experts on reproductive and sexual health and provide clinical services and health information to people throughout NSW.”

Just to illustrate how committed FPNSW is to contraception, here is a brief look at FPNSW’s “Contraception” page:

“EVERY WOMAN NEEDS ACCESS TO SAFE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE METHODS OF CONTRACEPTION. However, this is not the case for many women in the Pacific. The Pacific region has some of the poorest contraceptive prevalence rates in the world, and a high unmet need for family planning. Today, approximately 9 out of 10 sexually active adolescent girls are unable to access the contraceptive services they need, putting them at risk of experiencing unintended pregnancy.”

“With funding provided to us through ANCP, we are working with Vanuatu Family Health Association to provide contraceptives and education on the importance of maintaining safe reproductive and sexual health. Since 2014 we have provided contraception to 21,000 women in Vanuatu.”

FPNSW’s “Unplanned Pregnancy: Abortion” factsheet page show that FPNSW not only advocates for abortion, it also commits them.

“You do not usually need a referral from a doctor to get an abortion. You can find services through:
– your local Family Planning NSW clinic
– Family Planning NSW Talkline
– Children by Choice”

FPNSW’s 2020-21 Annual Report also confirms that the organization commits abortion:

Confirming the partnership between FPNSW and JRS Australia, this 2021 article by JRS Australia titled “We are beautiful women, we are brave women”, details how JRS Australia hosted a FPNSW spokesperson to talk for International Women’s Day:

“On Tuesday 9 March, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia joined women seeking asylum, refugee women, and women from all walks of life to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD). The event was generously hosted by Catholic Diocese of Parramatta.”

“Aaminah Goolam from Family Planning NSW spoke about the importance of the right to healthcare, including the right to reproductive healthcare.”

Given what we know about FPNSW’s ideologies regarding the “right to reproductive healthcare,” there can be no doubt that this presentation included the promotion of contraception, sterilization and abortion.

JRS Asia – Pacific Promotes Transgenderism

A January 2022 article (and video) published by JRS Asia Pacific titled “Adopted and loved by a loving motherland, Thailand”, describes how a gender confused man named Jojo was accepted into the Catholic Church in Thailand without any sort of acknowledgement of his disordered condition.

This article gives no correction or moral guidance to Jojo’s claims that he was born with an incorrect gender. In fact, the article unmercifully confirms Jojo in his confusion and disorder:

“My name is Jojo. I was not always called by this name. This name is the name of my soul I have risked my life to live. You see, I was born in the great nation of Pakistan. My name at birth was Joseph. I was born as a transgender woman even though I didn’t know what that was. The direction of my life has been influenced by this every single day. From the time I was very young, I knew I was different than other girls. My family did not understand who I was and treated me like a son. But in my heart, I knew the truth.”

Jojo later explains that he was accepted as transgendered by the Catholic Church without any explanation of Church teaching concerning gender confusion:

“I learned about my community, the LGBT community. I learned why I was so attracted to them and where I fit in. I learned what a transgender identity is and was able to live with the full awareness of who I am. I learned hair care at Ninrat school of hairdressing in Wong Wain Yai. At first, I hid who I was but quickly came to realize that I was loved for who I am. Every day I felt like I was living my destiny. I felt like I was awaking into a deja vu of some forgotten life that happened before.

Here I also found a safe place to practice my religion. I did not need to hide any aspect of myself. I could go from my hairdressing classes and travel with my makeup on to my Catholic Church where I was accepted and loved.”

Problems with JRS USA

JRS USA is an active dues-paying member of InterAction which bills itself as “the largest US based alliance of international NGO’s and partners.” The problem is that InterAction is a major advocate for the spread and promotion of all forms of contraception.

The InterAction webpage titled “Membership Dues Policy” states that “In order to keep membership active with InterAction, members are required to pay dues annually. Membership dues represent approximately 25% of InterAction’s total operating budget.”  According to JRS’s most recent financial information, it is a $26.6 million organization, which means – according to InterAction’s dues policy – JRS pays $26,000 a year to Internation.

A 2019 InterAction document titled “Choose to Invest in Development & Humanitarian Relief: FY2019” called on the United States government to invest $1.5 billion in “Family Planning in all accounts” and JRS USA is one of the undersigned members. This document CLEARLY spells out that it is calling for government funded artificial contraception.

The document first claims that “U.S. investment in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services improves maternal and child health, reduces unintended pregnancies, prevents unsafe abortion, lowers HIV infection rates, and promotes women’s and girls’ rights.”

The document also claims that:

“For every cut of $10 million in U.S. international FP/RH assistance, the following would result:

414,000 fewer women and couples would receive contraceptive services and supplies;

123,000 more unintended pregnancies, including 55,000 more unplanned births, would occur.”

“Conversely, every additional dollar spent on contraceptive services will save $2.22 in pregnancy related care.”

The document makes clear that “The undersigned members and partners of InterAction urge support for full funding in Fiscal Year 2019 for poverty-focused international development and humanitarian assistance accounts at no less than the levels outlined in the attached recommendations.” This is clearly seen in the following screenshot of the document:

JRS as a signatory of this document can be seen here:

The following screen capture shows the contraceptive “family planning in all accounts” request:

The following two screen captures show the “justifications” given by InterAction (and JRS as a signatory) for requesting an increase in spending on family planning. It is very clear that this is intended as contraceptive in nature.

JRS USA also signed InterAction’s 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Compact. This document includes many homosexualist demands for organizations, including that “gender affirming healthcare is automatically part of healthcare benefits.” This means that JRS USA is calling for transgender surgery and other abominations to be required in organizational health plans.  Here is a screen capture of this section:

Furthermore, this document demands organizations dismantle “the current heteronormative understanding of what a “family” looks like,” and also allow any gender to share restrooms and facilities.

Conclusion

Jesuit Refugee Service is absolutely unfit to receive donations from faithful Catholics. JRS uses its money and resources to directly provide condoms to South American refugees, work with abortion providers in Australia, promote transgenderism in Asia, push the funding of worldwide contraceptive schemes, and force mandatory “transitioning” health care services in the United States.

We ask our readers to contact their bishops about this report as well as share it with other faithful Catholics to ensure this unworthy organization receives no more Catholic funding.  Furthermore, JRS should not be allowed to identify itself as a Catholic organization and bishops should disallow it from having contact with any parish.