Appeal aids home missions

Catholics across the Albany Diocese are accustomed to mission appeals being made for faraway places.

Once a year, though, they have a chance to turn their eyes towards mission areas closer to home: Appalachia, the Deep South, the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain states, according to a pulpit letter from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard.

The annual Catholic Home Missions collection will be taken up in the Albany Diocese August 25-26.

In need

"There are many places in America where the Catholic Church struggles to offer Mass, the sacraments and religious education," wrote Bishop Hubbard.

He said that Catholics in more prosperous parts of the U.S. have the opportunity to help those in areas where Catholics are a minority.

The ministries Catholics in more populous or richer areas take for granted, such as religious education and the celebration of Mass, he noted, are infrequent in mission territories.

Examples

The annual appeal benefits:

* the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, which has only 19 priests for all of its towns and villages;

* the Diocese of Lubbock, Texas, where 34 priests cover 62 parishes and missions;

* and the states of Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, which only have 70, 57 and 45 priests respectively.

Funds from the appeal will also aid churches and missions in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Pacific islands, which need extra help in training lay leaders and forming small communities of informed religious educators.

Successes

Last year, the Home Missions Office gave more than $3 million in ongoing aid to the dioceses along the Gulf Coast that were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In eight years, the Appeal has more than doubled from $4.5 million to close to $10 million given by Catholics across the U.S. Since 1924, more than $250 million has been donated to support Church activities in mission dioceses.

Parishioners "have the opportunity to help their fellow Catholics in America live out their faith under difficult circumstances. Again, I am grateful for your generosity," wrote Bishop Hubbard.

(8/23/07)