Catholic Home Missions Appeal strengthening the Church in America

The 2007 Catholic Home Missions Appeal is scheduled in parishes nationally for the weekend of April 28-29.

Once again, parishioners across the United States will have the opportunity to help their fellow Catholics in rural America-from the Deep South to the Mountain West-live out their faith under difficult circumstances. By the generosity of Catholics across the land, last year, the Catholic Home Missions gave more than $3 million to the dioceses along the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

What Is a Home Mission?

If you have ever visited eastern Kentucky or Tennessee, driven through rural Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi, spent time on the Mexican border, or passed through scattered small towns in Wyoming, Montana, or Oregon, you have been in mission territory. The little brick or clapboard churches you see along the way, housing pockets of Catholic faithful, are the home missions. This Appeal also benefits Catholic communities in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and island chains in the Pacific that have ties to America.

The Church is quite fragile in many parts of the United States where Catholics are a small minority. In the Diocese of New Ulm, the Appeal currently supports Hispanic Ministry, Communications, and Lay Ministry Training.

The Catholic Home Missions Appeal, dedicated to strengthening the Church at home, is administered by the Committee on the Home Missions, a division of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

For more information, please contact the Secretariat for the Home Missions at (202) 541-5400; www.usccb.org/hm.