Catholic Home Missions Appeal Strengthens the Church

April 5, 2023224 views0

Catholic Home Missions Appeal Strengthens the Church

2023-04-05T09:46:11+01:00

By Church News

On the weekend of April 29-30, Catholics across the United States are invited to give to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) when their dioceses take up the Appeal.This annual collection supports dioceses in the United States and its territories where it is difficult to sustain basic, essential ministries because of challenges posed by geography, population, or economy.These basic pastoral services include Mass, sacraments, religious education, and training for clergy and lay people to minister to the local faithful.“In Alaska, courageous missionary priests from as far away as Nigeria travel through ice and snow by seaplane and snowmobile to serve remote churches scarcely larger than mobile homes,” said Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City and chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions.“God does not measure the vitality of our faith by the quality of our stained glass or the height of the arches in the naves of our churches. When he sees the faithful travelling large distances during extreme weather conditions to worship and receive the sacraments in a small, simple chapel, God sees a treasure greater than gold.”In 2022, the Catholic Home Missions Appeal provided more than $8 million in grants to nearly 80 dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies to strengthen the Church at home.Some of the ministries and services these grants supported include evangelization; youth and young adult ministry; the formation of priests, deacons, and religious and lay leaders; marriage and family ministry; cross-cultural outreach; church communications; and pastoral planning.In the Diocese of Fairbanks, where 19 priests serve 46 parishes in a territory one and a half times the size of Texas, the Catholic Home Missions Appeal supported enculturation training to prepare three new missionary priests from Argentina, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe for ministry in rural Indigenous parishes, as well as the formation of deacons from local Indigenous communities.ALSO READ: Christian Festival To Be Streamed Live In Over 70 Prisons