From northernmost Mexico to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina, as well as throughout the islands of the Caribbean, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s annual Collection for the Church in Latin America supports fellow Catholics as they grow in their faith and share God’s love. Last year, this collection supported 252 projects funded by the $6.2 million that Catholics in the United States gave to the annual fund. For more than 50 years, this annual collection has been a powerful way for us to unite more closely with our brothers and sisters in faith throughout Latin America and the Caribbean as we support diocesan pastoral catechetical and family life ministries, seminary studies, and formation programs for religious sisters and brothers. The collection also helps the poorest dioceses obtain basic necessities that they otherwise would be unable to afford, which would leave them unable to minister effectively to the faithful.
Allow me to offer two examples of the aid this annual collection provides. Amid grinding poverty in Haiti, with millions of people still reeling from the 2010 earthquake and suffering from the ongoing political instability, programs funded by the annual Collection for the Church in Latin America have taught people to develop and manage sustainable farming projects to produce food for themselves and their neighbors, many of whom live in dire poverty. In the Archdiocese of Sao Salvador de Bahia in northeastern Brazil, this fund has underwritten a robust program of social outreach that helps parishioners care for thousands of homeless men, women and children.
“The Collection for the Church in Latin America is a chance for Catholics in the Americas to share their faith and grow closer to Christ,” said Bishop Octavio Cisneros, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn and chairman of the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America of the USCCB. “I thank the faithful of the United States for their compassion and generosity to their sisters and brothers in Latin America and the Caribbean. I have seen first-hand the people in many countries who benefit from this generosity.”
Since this collection began, U. S. Catholics have contributed over $190 million to support the Church in Latin America and Caribbean, including areas that are so remote and difficult to serve. We will take up this collection for the Church in Latin America this weekend. Please be generous in this collection, and take this opportunity to share your faith with so many families throughout Latin America. Your continued support will truly make a difference in spreading the Gospel and, in the name of so many who hunger for it, I thank you.