Combined Mission Collection - Janaruy 17th

Collection for the Church in Latin America

The theme “One Church, One America” continues to call attention to the apostolic exhortation The Church in America. In that historic plea, which Pope John Paul II delivered many years ago in Mexico City, he urged all Catholics in the Americas to take responsibility in compassion and solidarity for their brothers and sisters throughout the hemisphere. That plea is echoed today by Pope Francis.

Monies from the collection are given as grants for pastoral programs initiated by local bishops in Latin America. These grants assist in the formation of priests, religious, lay pastoral leaders, missionaries, pastoral workers, catechists, and youth ministers, and strengthen the Church’s work towards peace and reconciliation.

The Collection for the Church in Latin America gives concrete witness to the ever increasing solidarity the faithful in the United States have with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Collection to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe

While the countries of central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR endured decades of communist oppression, the Church suffered grave wounds to its spiritual life and pastoral capacity to serve its people. For generations Church leaders were killed or imprisoned. Catechists were persecuted, and churches, monasteries, and seminaries were closed or destroyed.

As a result of this severe repression, the Church was greatly weakened. The bishops of the region are faced with the formidable task of restoring its church structures and, more importantly, rebuilding the spiritual center of its communities.

The Office to Aid the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe provides a focal point for Catholics of the United States to express our compassion and solidarity with our brothers and sisters whose faith has endured such great suffering.

Catholic Home Missions Appeal

“ Strengthening the Church at Home” is the theme of the Catholic Home Mission Appeal. The annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal provides for poor and isolated Catholics—in such areas as Alaska, Appalachia, the Deep South, the Southwest, the Mountain West, and the “young dioceses” of the Caribbean and the Pacific—who find it difficult to receive the sacraments or to participate in parish religious education programs because of long distances, few resources, and a lack of priests. Here in the United States 85 dioceses have benefited from Catholic Home Missions funding for evangelization, outreach, religious education, campus ministry, seminarian education, diaconal formation, lay ministry training, and Hispanic ministries.

Approximately 45% of the dioceses in the United States are simply unable to provide the basic pastoral ministries of word, worship, and service for their people without funding from the Catholic Home Missions Appeal.

United States Mission Collection

The United States Mission Collection supports evangelization programs funded through the Office of Black and Indian Missions in almost every Archdiocese and Diocese in the United States. From inner cities in the rural South to deserts of the Southwest to Alaska’s cold wilderness, some of the neediest people in the United States are helped by the United States Mission Collection.

Within the Diocese of Charlotte, some of the evangelization projects partially funded by The United States Mission Collection workshops, revivals, and special programs sponsored by the diocesan office of African American Affairs Ministry and Campus Ministry at NCA&T and Bennett College.

Your donation to the United States Mission Collection will make a difference in the lives of many of your brothers and sisters throughout the United States and here in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa

Africa faces the economic and social hurdles of enormous debt, epidemic, severe poverty, and political unrest. In spite of these challenges, the Church in Africa has almost tripled in size in the past 30 years. However, it is difficult for the church to sustain its growth and maintain essential pastoral outreach. The Fund provides grants to finance pastoral projects including outreach programs, schools, evangelization, and education of clergy and lay ministers. The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa supports the pastoral works of the Church through grants for projects like pastoral care for the sick, evangelization, youth ministry, religious education, and peace-building workshops.

Our help is essential. Your donation to the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa will help us “ Be one with the Church in Africa.”