Are Catholic aid organisations distinctively different humanitarian actors? This paper critically engages with the contested spaces religion holds in one of the core areas of international relations (IR): humanitarianism. It does so through an intersectional analysis of a relatively less explored array of actors within the growing body of literature on faith-based organisations (FBOs), namely those associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Moving beyond the recent (re)discovery of religion in humanitarian politics, this paper explores why and how Catholic non-governmental organisations (CNGOs) navigate tensions in the secular humanitarian landscape, specifically focusing on forced displacement. Central to my enquiry is the discursive framing adopted by Catholic practitioners to negotiate the delivery of religious aid in a secular humanitarian landscape. The goal is to provide insights on how CNGOs understand and frame their work to engage with secular actors. The findings discussed in this paper therefore contribute to research gaps on how religious literacy in IR and in humanitarian contexts can help religious actors navigate secularised discourse and institutions. Crucially, the recent formalisation of partnerships between secular and faith actors still fail to gauge the inherent complexity of specific religions, as in the case of Catholicism. To probe into these questions, three case studies were purposively selected as humanitarian NGOs that are respectively "dependent", "semi-dependent", and "independent" from the Holy See (30+ interviews). Although they are Catholic and are all recognised as charitable organisations of the Church, their differing canonical status and internal structures are often overlooked by scholars of FBOs, by secular organisations, diplomats and policymakers. These questions are further appraised through analysis of archival material colleced from the Apostolic Vatican Library and participant observations in the field.