Jill Rauh, executive director of a newly created secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pledged her support for the work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the USCCB’s national anti-poverty initiative, after some expressed concern about the future of that project amid staff layoffs.

Rauh will oversee the work of the new Secretariat for Justice and Peace, announced Aug. 6. The new office will serve four bishops’ committees and advance the church’s social mission through education, policy analysis, advocacy and outreach.

In an interview, Rauh told OSV News that the Secretariat would continue to “work for just policies so that we can promote human dignity and human flourishing.”

In late June, the USCCB laid off an unspecified number of employees as part of a restructuring of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, a key ministry tasked with promoting awareness of and advocating for Catholic social teaching in the United States and abroad. The conference did not provide an exact number of employees affected, but some estimates put the number at about a dozen, including staff at the CCHD, which was part of that ministry.

CCHD was founded in 1969 as the National Catholic Crusade Against Poverty and is now under the USCCB’s Office of National Collections. However, the Secretariat for Justice and Peace will continue to work with the poverty reduction initiative, Rauh said.

“I am pleased to announce that the Secretariat will continue to work with our colleagues at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to support their important work to combat poverty,” she told OSV News. “We will work with them. We will continue to receive direction from the staff and committee of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. CCHD is an important way for Catholics to live out their faith and engage in their communities.”

Prior to her new appointment, Rauh served as Director of Education and Public Relations at the Ministry of Justice and Peace from 2017 to 2024.

The Justice and Peace Secretariat will serve the Committee on Internal Justice and Human Development, the Committee on International Justice and Peace, the Committee on Religious Freedom and the Ad Hoc Committee against Racism.

At the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly in 2023, the bishops voted to replace the USCCB’s current strategic planning cycle with a mission planning process aimed at streamlining, reducing costs, and eliminating silos at the USCCB, despite concerns raised at the time about the source of new funding.

Rauh said: “What we are doing in the future is that instead of having a separate office, we are integrating those staff who focus on education, training, communication and social mission into the other offices.” Their collaboration is intended to “establish the links between our faith, the call of the Holy Scriptures, the social mission of our church and our commitment and work to combat poverty.”

“Sometimes there can be misunderstandings that we are either about prayer or action, but as people of faith we are about both,” she said of the secretariat’s goal. “We are about a common approach, our work is aimed at changing these unjust structures and working for justice. This is based on our identity as Catholics and people of faith who have encountered the living Christ who cares for and accompanies the poor” and “to make sure that we are not isolated in our approach.”