The full original report is found here at the Lepanto Institute.
The Lepanto Institute has received several requests concerning Jesuit Refugee Service, 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
Father 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 organization falls “under the direct responsibility of the Superior General, Rev. Arturo Sosa Abascal, S.J. JRS international director Br. Michael Schöpf, S.J., is [the] 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, a leading provider of contraception and a 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 NGOs that is also vociferously pro-contraceptive. As a member of InterAction, JRS USA signed a 2019 document calling for increased spending on contraceptives. JRS USA is also a signatory on a diversity, equity and inclusion compact that calls for homosexual rights as well as demands that “gender-affirming healthcare” is a mandatory part of healthcare benefits.
Direct Provision of Condoms
JRS Latin America and the 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. In many of these contracts, we found that 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.
The JRS Latin America and the Caribbean website is the following page (originally in Spanish) showing the contents of their hygiene kits from January through 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, 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, section 3.1 speaks of supplying “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 preservativos,” 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 the 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 at 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 the Caribbean region is most definitely dispensing condoms and promoting contraception.
Read the rest at Lepanto Institute.
