JOB WELL DONE: Eastern Church's needs met by U.S. Catholics

For nearly 20 years, American Catholics have been contributing to an annual collection that supports their peers in Central and Eastern Europe. The collection, which is held nationwide in the spring (May in the Albany Diocese), was begun in the early 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.

In the wake of those collapses, Catholics became free to practice their faith openly. What also became open were the massive needs of the Church in countries like Albania, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. Decades of privation and persecution may have strengthened Catholics spiritually, but they had taken a devastating toll on the infrastructure of the faith.

A case in point came to light when a priest from the U.S. visited a bishop in Romania to find out what assistance his diocese needed. The two men toured a seminary, where the visitor noticed that 48 priests-to-be slept in two rooms, and shared only two showers and one toilet. When the American asked the Romanian to list his needs, the bishop replied, hesitantly: "Well, we could use some typewriters for the seminarians." The U.S. priest responded, "You need a lot more than that!"

Thanks to millions of dollars in aid donated by American Catholics, including those in the Albany Diocese, changes have been made in several nations. That one seminary was updated in terms of plumbing and electricity, for example -- and the seminarians got their typewriters as well for a total cost of about $100,000.

But material changes are not the only kind being brought about by the American assistance. Donations have also improved the religious formation of lay leaders, sisters, brothers and priests. Libraries have been expanded, and seminarians have been given scholarships to study overseas.

Usually, we write about such good works right before a collection, in order to inspire an increase in donations. This time, we just want to congratulate those who have helped over the years. Those checks you write and hand in to your parish have done an enormous amount of good that you should know about and take pride in.

(7/10/03) [[In-content Ad]]