Annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal Serves Those Who “Thirst for the Gospel”

WASHINGTON – The Catholic faithful who give to the annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal are imitating Jesus, who “spent little time in cities but built his ministry in fishing villages and rural areas,” said Bishop Chad W. Zielinski, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions.

The appeal supports nearly 75 Latin Rite dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies in the United States and its current and former territories that cannot sustain ministry without outside help due to limited financial resources, small or widely dispersed Catholic populations, or both. They are typically in rural regions or small cities with seasonal employment.

Many dioceses will take the collection in their parishes on April 25-26, though some dioceses choose a different date. Those who wish to support the appeal with an online gift can donate at www.igivecatholic.org/story/USCCB-CHM.

“The work of the Catholic Home Missions Appeal reflects Jesus’s encounter with the ‘woman at the well,’ whom Eastern Christians call St. Photina,” said Bishop Zielinski, referencing the Samaritan woman at the well. “She was an outcast in a community that was considered heretical and that many of Jesus’ followers avoided. After talking with him, Photina evangelized her neighbors (John 4).”

“Most of our mission dioceses are in remote, rural areas, or communities with economic and social challenges. Yet they are filled with people like St. Photina, who thirst for the Gospel and are eager to spread its life-changing message,” Bishop Zielinski said.

Recently, the Catholic Home Missions Appeal provided more than $8.1 million in assistance to mission dioceses. The array of needs the grants addressed ranged from fuel for the seaplanes that priests fly to island villages in Alaska to developing Spanish-language ministries in dioceses with growing Latino immigrant populations. Among the grant recipients:

• The Diocese of Steubenville strengthened its ministries to vulnerable expectant mothers by engaging its parishes in the USCCB’s “Walking with Moms in Need” initiative. 
• The Diocese of Dodge City expanded its Spanish-language ministry by increasing the availability Spanish-language print resources, diocesan marriage retreats, and bilingual diocesan personnel.  
• The Diocese of Belleville supported a full-time college minister who is forming students to be church leaders and has inspired new vocations to the priesthood.
• The Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago serves the people of American Samoa’s seven islands through its five Catholic schools that provide educational opportunities in a territory where unemployment rates and living costs are high.

“Your generosity shows Catholics in remote areas that the Church stands with them, and that Jesus is calling them to embrace his mercy and share his message as St. Photina did,” Bishop Zielinski said.

Information about the Catholic Home Missions Appeal may be found at: www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-home-missions.

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