Catholics can help missions

BY PAT PASTERNAK
STAFF WRITER

This weekend, Aug. 23-24, parishioners in the Albany diocese can chip in to help their fellow Catholics in remote and needy areas through the annual Catholic Home Missions appeal.

"The appeal offers Catholics a wonderful opportunity to help those that practice their faith in such rugged mission areas as Alaska, Appalachia, the Deep South, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountain states, Puerto Rico and the island dioceses in the Pacific and Caribbean," Bishop Howard J. Hubbard wrote in a letter read last weekend in parishes.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, more than 95 percent of donations go directly to mission parishes to "keep the doors open, support pastors in their priestly ministry and provide basic pastoral services like religious education for children."

AK to MS

For example, in the Archdiocese of Anchorage, donations from past appeals allowed Catholic Home Missions to provide a grant of $125,000 to rural parishes supporting faith development and enrichment, the diocesan newspaper and Hispanic ministry.

In the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss., the appeal funded evangelization, Catholic schools, ministry to handicapped Catholics, communications, seminary education and ethnic ministries in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Biloxi was one of five dioceses that received a total of $3 million in emergency funds to help rebuild parishes there.

Iraq fallout

Additionally, Catholic Home Missions funds programs of evangelization, religious education and communications to 40,000 Arabic-speaking Catholics in 19 states including Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana. These include many Chaldean Catholics from Iraq who fled anti-Christian persecution.

A diocese is considered a "mission diocese"  when it meets several criteria: meager financial assets; a low Catholic population, usually less than ten percent; great distances between parishes; an insufficient number of priests, deacons or lay leaders; a growing ethnic group needing pastoral education; and a high unemployment rate. The annual appeal funds programs that meet these needs.

"The theme for 2008 is 'Sharing One Faith: Catholic Missions in America,'" Bishop Hubbard wrote. "Through this appeal, parishioners will have the opportunity to help their fellow Catholics in America live out their faith under difficult circumstances. I am (as always) grateful for your parish's life of stewardship and faith!"

For more information, go to the U.S. bishops' website, www.usccb.org/hm/.

(08/21/08)