Rural, Struggling Areas Benefit from Catholic Home Missions Appeal

 WASHINGTON—The annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal will be held in most parishes the weekend of April 23-24. This appeal helps to sustain nearly 45 percent of all dioceses and eparchies in rural and struggling areas of the country and in a number of U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

In 2016, the Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions allocated over $10 million to 85 dioceses. The collection supports evangelization, catechesis, seminarian education, lay ministry training, Hispanic ministry, and other essential pastoral programs for dioceses in need.

"U.S. mission dioceses need our encouragement and support to provide pastoral care to their faithful," said Bishop Paul D. Etienne of Cheyenne, Wyoming, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions. "Participation in this collection makes many ministries in mission dioceses possible. We are grateful for the generosity of the American people to support the faith of their brothers and sisters in less prosperous dioceses. Their contributions strengthen the Church here at home."

Shareable resources can be found at: https://www.usccb.org/catholic-giving/opportunities-for-giving/catholic-home-missions-appeal/collection/index.cfm.

Additional resources to learn about the collection and the projects it supports include an interactive map, PDF version of map, videos about the home missions, and an annual report. The home page for the collection is www.usccb.org/home-missions.
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Keywords: National Collections, Catholic Home Missions Appeal, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, ministry, Hispanic ministry missionary work, evangelization, Bishop Paul D. Etienne, Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions
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