By the USCCB
Special to The Message
During Masses over the weekend of Jan. 25-26, Catholics in parishes across the United States will have an opportunity to support the Church’s mission in countries affected by poverty, political instability and natural disasters by giving to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) annual collection for the Church in Latin America. Last year, the collection provided $6.2 million for more than 250 ministries in places where the Church cannot support itself without outside assistance.
The collection was founded in 1965 as a way for Catholics in the U.S. to express their unity and solidarity with Catholics in Central and South America and the islands of the Caribbean. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, it recognizes spiritual bonds rooted in shared faith and history.
Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg of Reno, chairman of the USCCB Committee on National Collections, encountered an Oklahoma priest in 1981 who was later martyred in Guatemala.
“Blessed Stanley Rother ministered in Guatemala, even in the face of great danger because God had called him to love and care for Latin Americans in need,” Bishop Mueggenborg said. “Father Rother’s ministry to the poor threatened the interests of powerful people and it ultimately led to his death, but his heroic witness helped to inspire my own priestly vocation and my sense of solidarity with Catholics in Latin America. The Collection for the Church in Latin America is an opportunity for all of us to answer that same call. It may not cost us our lives, but a financial sacrifice, even a small one, will go towards impacting the lives of many.”
More than half the money collected last year supported pastoral needs, nearly 28% provided disaster relief and about 20% subsidized vocations and the formation of clergy and religious. A few examples include:
- In Haiti, which has severe soil depletion, 330 lay leaders integrated Catholic social teaching on ecology and care for creation with practical instruction on improving their soil and water and planting trees to prevent erosion.
- In the Diocese of Choluteca, Honduras, the collection aided migrants who have settled there from other Latin American nations and from as far as Asia and Africa.
- In the Dominican Republic, 18 young women who entered the religious community of the Order of Saint Clare are receiving support as they discover new approaches to praying for the world from their cloistered convent.
- In Ecuador, the collection helped to subsidize the September 2024 International Eucharistic Congress, which drew participants from 40 nations.
Many dioceses will take the collection in their parishes the weekend of Jan. 25-26. For more information, visit https://www.usccb.org/committees/church-latin-america.