BRAINTREE -- Father Steve Josoma never asks refugees for their stories, but they have a way of coming up on their own.

Father Josoma is the pastor of St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, part of Parishes Organized to Welcome Immigrants and Refugees (POWIR), an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since 2018, Father Josoma has helped resettle nine refugee families in Boston, most recently from Guatemala and Myanmar (Burma). The patriarch of the Guatemalan family needed special walking shoes due to an unspecified injury, so Father Josoma made sure he had some. While packing donated winter clothes with Father Josoma, the Guatemalan man pulled up his pant leg to reveal his injury: a hole in his leg bigger than a golf ball. When he was nine years old, the man was shot in the leg by soldiers. He watched his father and mother be murdered before his eyes.

"These people carry physical and emotional scars from way, way back," Father Josoma told The Pilot on March 10.

The man wore a homemade t-shirt. The words "Forever in my heart" were written on it in Spanish, beneath the faces of two of his siblings. Many of his siblings had been killed or imprisoned. With tears in his eyes, he told Father Josoma that nobody in his life had helped him the way St. Susanna did.

The man is now living in Boston with his wife and their son and daughter in law. It's not easy finding apartments willing to take in refugees, but St. Susanna managed to find a place in Hyde Park for the Guatemalan family and the Burmese family -- a couple and their 19-month-old baby. The Guatemalan father and son offered to help the couple. The son's wife offered to look after the baby. The mother cooked dinner for her new neighbors, and the Burmese family later returned the favor.

"These are people who 24 hours earlier were at Catholic Charities getting the news that all of their funds would be gone," Father Josoma said, adding: "And they were horrified."

On Feb. 27, the Trump administration canceled a contract with the USCCB for refugee resettlement. The news came in the form of a "termination letter."

"Seeing that letter saying this program is terminated was a huge gut punch, and really took my breath away to see in writing that refugee resettlement is terminated," Catholic Charities Boston Vice President of Immigration and Refugee Services Marjean Perhot told The Pilot.

About $1 million in federal funding is on hold, most of which would be used to provide basic needs such as housing to refugees. The U.S. government had contracted with Catholic Charities to resettle refugees, then provide them with funding to cover the costs.

"The government has not paid us back yet, which is very unusual," Perhot said.

She said that Catholic Charities has faced "immense" challenges following the funding freeze. The social service agency was expecting more refugees whose arrival has now been put on hold by the Trump administration halting the U.S. refugee admissions system. Refugee families in Boston, some of whom have been waiting for over a decade to be reunited with their loved ones, will now have to wait even longer.

"It's horrific," Perhot said.

Many members of the Catholic Charities refugee resettlement teams are themselves refugees who recently arrived in the U.S. and were waiting for their own relatives.

"That hope is also dashed," Perhot said. "Meanwhile, people remain overseas in very precarious situations, and for those people, as I mentioned before, the lifeline of hope is being cut off for them."

Every year on Ash Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Boston holds a collection for Catholic Charities. In the wake of the termination of federal funding, the collection became even more urgent, with Catholic Charities officials speaking at Masses throughout the archdiocese encouraging parishioners to donate. Perhot thanked everyone who donated and asked them to continue praying for Catholic Charities.

"We need your prayers to soften the hearts and minds of people so that we can all remember the face of Jesus, the Holy Family as they fled, keeping in mind that Jesus is in everybody, whether we enter as a refugee or are born in this country."

Catholic Charities agencies throughout the country have announced closures and layoffs in response to the withholding of funds. Perhot said that CCB is "working extremely hard" to support refugees already in the U.S. "despite the federal government not living up to its contract." Staff previously responsible for refugee resettlement are being reassigned to other work contracted by the federal government. If those contracts are not renewed, Catholic Charities will lose a portion of its workforce.

"If the government forces us to stop all work that we do with refugees, it could have another devastating effect," Perhot said.

In February, the USCCB sued the Trump administration over the withheld funds. Perhot said that so far, the only solution is that the U.S. "honors its historic commitment and role as leader in humanitarian response to global crises."

In 30 years of work with Catholic Charities, Perhot said that she has never seen such "vociferous attacks on refugees" coming from the White House. Father Josoma said he was angered by Vice President J.D. Vance's comments referring to refugees resettled by USCCB as "illegal immigrants."

"Every one of these people, every one of them, is documented," he said, pointing out that they have passports and social security numbers.

CCB has resettled refugees from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Syria, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, and Cameroon in recent years. All of these nations have been ravaged by conflict, whether it be civil war or rampant gang violence. Father Josoma said that "there's no stereotype" of refugee families. No two are alike. The only thing they have in common is the hardship they endured in their home countries -- and that "it's been a blessing knowing them."

"I've never met people who were so hopeful and faithful and happy," Father Josoma said about the Guatemalan family. "And these are people who don't know where their next meal is coming from."

In 2023, St. Susanna welcomed a family of 15 from Honduras -- four sisters and their children. One of their fathers had been murdered by a drug cartel. His body was dumped in front of a local police station. The family's convenience store was also ransacked.

"Their whole family was in danger," Father Josoma said. "None of them wanted to come here, they all were facing horrible things back where they came from."

He said that St. Susanna will continue to help refugee families out with rent and utilities through parish donations.

"We will be with them the whole way," he said.