Subcommittee On The Church In Latin America Approves Almost $2.7 Million in Pastoral and Reconstruction Grants

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Subcommitteeon the Church in Latin America approved funding for 99 projects, totalingalmost $1.3 million in grants to aid the pastoral work of the Church incountries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. These pastoral projectsare a way for U.S. Catholics to express their solidarity with the Catholics ofthese regions.

"Allocatingthis money donated by our generous parishioners is important work," said BishopEusebio Elizondo, M.Sp.S., auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of thesubcommittee. "In considering the project requests, we continue to maintain afocus on encouraging family life and pro-life initiatives. Funds have also beenallocated to youth ministries, especially for youth who are preparing for WorldYouth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro." Other groups that received funding at thebishops' meeting in San Diego, June 9, focused on the formation of religiouspersonnel and a variety of parish-based evangelization and pastoralefforts.

Twoexamples of groups that received funding to prepare for World Youth Day werethe Episcopal Conference of Ecuador, awarded an $18,000 grant, and theEpiscopal Conference of Paraguay, which received a $15,000 grant. Both grantswill help send young people to World Youth Day. The subcommittee is alsohosting an online contest to raise awareness for the work of the Church inLatin America. Participants can answer trivia questions to win prizes oft-shirts and other items with the World Youth Day logo.

The subcommittee alsoapproved $1.4 million for six projects for the reconstruction of the Church inHaiti. Funding for these projects comes from the special collection for theChurch in Haiti that followed the 2010 earthquake. One of the projects is a newmultipurpose building. "Parishioners have not had a viable worshipping space for the past three years," said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairmanof the subcommittee's Haiti Advisory Group. "This new building is an example ofthe significant progress we have been making in the last few months to help with the reconstruction in Haiti."

The new multipurposeroom will serve both as a place of worship on Sundays and a space for meetingsduring the week. All USCCB aid for reconstruction work in Haiti goes throughthe Partnership for Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti (PROCHE), the HaitianBishops' Conference construction entity developed for this purpose. Otherpartners in these projects include Adveniat, theKoch Foundation, and the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

The Subcommittee on theChurch in Latin America oversees the Collection for the Church in Latin Americaas part of the USCCB Committee on National Collections. More information on theCollection for the Church in Latin America and the projects it funds can befound online: www.usccb.org/catholic-giving/opportunities-for-giving/latin-america/

---

Keywords:Latin America, evangelization, clergy, layformation, Haiti, PROCHE, Collection for the Church in Latin America, ObispoEusebio Elizondo, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,World Youth Day

# # # # #