For
information on how you can participate in any of the programs listed below
or to schedule a mission presentation, please contact Deacon Paul in the
Office of Global Concerns.
All of us are Catholic
Christians because someone came to the land of our ancestors as a missionary
of the Gospel and the Mission of Jesus Christ. Patrick went to Ireland, Boniface went to
Germany, and Cyril and Methodius went to the Slavic countries, to name a few.
Sometimes
missionary activity brings the Gospel to a nation or a group which has not
previously experienced the “Good News Of Jesus.” Sometimes the presence
of missionaries from other countries remains there for a couple of
generations to help the faith grow to where the people have a mature
identity as Christians. Sometimes missionary activity must bring the Gospel
to a place where it had been alive, but for some reason has been lost.
But always missionary activity is essential if we are to call ourselves
Church.
St. Paul
found that there were two keys to keeping his missionary activity going:
prayer and financial support. When Pauline Jaricot had an idea, in 1822, for
supporting missions, she asked the same two helps, prayer and alms. When her
idea became the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, these two keys to
propagating the faith remained. And for this we continue to give
thanks.
Pontifical Mission Societies
http://www.worldmissions-catholicchurch.org/pms/desktopdefault.aspx
Through
the Pontifical Mission Societies – which include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Holy Childhood Association,
Society of St. Peter Apostle, and the Missionary
Union
of Priests and Religious, every Catholic in every country has the
opportunity to be a part of the continuing mission of the Church.
Even the poorest in the Developing World contribute to the mission
needs of the Church Worldwide.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith was founded in
Lyons
,
France
, in 1822 by a young French laywoman, Pauline Jaricot. Inspired by stories
she heard about missionary work in
China
, she felt called by the Lord to help the Catholic Church's worldwide
missionary work. Pauline herself never traveled to the Missions, which,
during her lifetime, consisted of the Missions in
China
— and young dioceses in the
United States
. Pauline gathered friends and workers in a family silk mill into
"circles of ten," asking each person to pray daily for the
Missions and sacrifice a penny-a-week (at that time, quite a large
sacrifice!). From this idea emerged the Propagation of the Faith.
Today
the General Fund of the Propagation of the Faith, which gathers gifts from
Catholics all over the world — a concept that originated with Pauline
Jaricot and her desire to help all the world's missions — is the basic
means of support for the Catholic Church's worldwide Missions.
Holy
Childhood Association: French
Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson founded the Holy Childhood Association in
1843. Deeply affected by the distress of Chinese children abandoned in the
streets, he was moved to found a society similar to the Propagation of the
Faith —
but for children. He was convinced that though weak and needing care,
children rich in faith and love are capable of playing their own part in the
Church's mission —
and even of stirring adults to show the same generous spirit.
The response to Bishop Forbin-Janson's appeal was extraordinary. In a few
years, the unique concept of "children helping children" spread
not only throughout his native
France
, but all over Europe, then to North America, Latin America and Asia, and in
the last 40 years, to
Africa
.
HCA was established in 1846 in the
United States
, first in
New Orleans
,
Louisiana
, and later in
Baltimore
,
Maryland
. Today, its National Office is located in
New York City
with diocesan HCA offices nationwide.
HCA was raised to the status of "Pontifical" in 1922 by Pope Pius
XI.
Bishop Forbin-Janson's mission of "children helping children"
continues to guide HCA today.
The
Society of St. Peter Apostle: In 1889,
mother and daughter — Stephanie and Jeanne Bigard — answered a desperate
plea for help from the Missions. The French missionary bishop of
Nagazaki
,
Japan
, wrote to the two women asking for help to keep his seminary open because
he had run out of the funds necessary to help educate these young men to
serve their people as priests. The bishop just did not have the funds to
train these young Japanese men whom, he judged, would make excellent
priests.
The Bigards came to his assistance and started a small group for this
purpose in their native
Caen
,
France
. From these humble beginnings emerged the Society of St. Peter Apostle.
Within five years of sending their first donation to Japan, the Bigards, and
those whom they enlisted to help, were sending funds to seminaries in India,
Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Korea and China.
The goal of the Society of St. Peter then and now has been to invite
individuals to support the education of candidates for the Catholic
priesthood in the Developing World and to support the formation of men and
women candidates for the Religious life in the Missions.
In its first year, the Society of St. Peter Apostle sent help for some 2,700
seminarians in the Missions. Today, some 30,000 major seminarians, mostly in
Africa and
Asia
, receive an annual subsidy of $700 per student.
Missionary Union of
Priests and Religious: In 1916, Father Paolo
Manna, a PIME missionary serving in Myanmar (then called Burma), envisioned
an organization that would help him to share the spiritual graces he had
received through his work in bringing the "Good News" of Christ to
others. He wanted to encourage those already engaged in the work of the
Church to support the work of the Missions — and perhaps to become
missionaries themselves. And so, he formed the Missionary Union of Priests
and Religious.
Today, this spiritual apostolate started by this Italian missionary
continues to address itself to those called to bring Catholics to a better
understanding of their baptismal responsibility for the church’s
missionary work — to priests, Religious, seminarians, pastoral leaders and
those engaged in catechesis and religious education.
In fact, the success of the efforts of the three other missionary societies
is linked to the vitality of the Missionary Union, because it is through
this work that the missionary spirit –– a spirit of prayer and generous
sacrifice — is developed and nurtured.
Animators inspiring other animators to carry out the baptismal mandate to
"go to all nations and proclaim the 'Good News'" is what inspires
so many men and women, Religious and lay to witness and share their faith
with so many more.
Catholic
Relief Services
www.catholicrelief.org
(This site contains an educational part
for children)
Catholic
Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic
Bishops of the
United States
. Our mission is to assist the poor and
disadvantaged, leveraging the teachings of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to alleviate human suffering,
promote development of all people, and to foster
charity and justice throughout the world.
Working
through local offices and an extensive network of
partners, CRS operates on five continents and in 99
countries. We aid the poor by first providing direct
assistance where needed, then encouraging people to
help with their own development. Together, these
approaches foster secure, productive, just
communities that enable people to realize their
potential.
As
the official international relief and development
agency of the U.S. Catholic community, CRS is also
committed to educating the people of the
United States
to fulfill their moral responsibilities toward our
global brothers and sisters by helping the poor,
working to remove the causes of poverty, and
promoting social justice.
CRS
believes we must examine the root causes of
disasters, violence and suffering, as well as
provide immediate response to the world's
emergencies, in order to truly help communities find
paths to long-term recovery and rehabilitation.
Central to this vision are common themes that are
present throughout each CRS program.
Capacity
Building:
The
vast majority of CRS' projects are implemented
through the local organizations with which we have
ongoing relationships. Therefore, strengthening, or
building the capacity of these partner organizations
is fundamental to programs in every country in which
CRS works.
Food
Security:
For CRS, food security means ensuring that people
have physical and economic access to the food they
need to live a healthy and productive life today
without sacrificing their security tomorrow.
Gender:
CRS' gender programming helps meet the immediate
needs of women and men (and girls and boys) and
ensures they have an equal opportunity to realize
their full human potential.
Justice:
CRS strives to promote justice in all of its
activities and to focus its attention and assistance
on the poorest, most vulnerable and most
marginalized people around the world.
CRS
focuses its global work on eight key programming
areas.
Agriculture:
CRS' best agriculture programs, like seed fairs and
marketing for small family farms, are creating new
rules for a changing world.
Community
Health:
CRS' health programs target the most vulnerable
communities and enable them to address their own
basic health needs.
Education:
CRS and its partners promote and support access to
quality basic education for all to build peaceful
and just societies.
Emergency
Response:
CRS helps people affected by both complex, or
"man-made", emergencies (wars, etc.) and
natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and
droughts.
HIV/AIDS:
CRS' AIDS policy calls for compassion, not simply
sympathy. It calls us to affirm human dignity,
responsibility and to seek effective means of
addressing the AIDS crisis.
Microfinance:
CRS' microfinance projects target the self-employed
poor, especially women, who have little or no access
to formal credit.
Peacebuilding:
CRS' peacebuilding programs aim to transform the way
people, communities and societies live, to create a
space in which mutual trust and respect can
flourish.
Safety
Net Programming:
CRS' "safety nets" provide assistance for
extremely vulnerable individuals, such as orphans,
who are unable to meet the most basic needs for
survival and human dignity.
Emergency
Aid
in response to natural disasters and humanly caused
disasters. Notices from CRS are forwarded to
parishes with notation that if people want to send
money for the cause, it can be sent to the Diocese
of Toledo, marked for the specific disaster relief.
Operation
Rice Bowl
is Catholic Relief Services' Lenten solidarity
program. This year, over 15,000 parishes,
schools
and other faith communities put their faith into
action by participating in Operation Rice Bowl.
Through Operation Rice Bowl, millions of Catholics
in all 50 states reach out to assist our brothers
and sisters around the world through traditional
Lenten practices, by offering our prayers, by fasting,
by learning,
and by giving.
Please send your Operation Rice Bowl contributions
to your Diocesan Director so 25% may remain in your
diocese to fund local hunger and poverty alleviation
efforts.
Fair
Trade Program:
The CRS Fair Trade Program creates opportunities for
you to make trade fairer for poor people overseas
through the choices you make about what you eat,
drink, and buy. Fair Trade is a new model of
international trade, one that is built on right
relationships between us and the people overseas who
create the items we consume - relationships that
respect human dignity, promote economic justice, and
cultivate global solidarity. http://www.crsfairtrade.org
►Fair Trade
Coffee: By
ensuring that farmers earn a fair price for their
coffee, Fair Trade helps struggling small-scale
farmers to put food on the table even as world
coffee prices reach historic lows. By ensuring that
these farmers get access to credit and technical
assistance, Fair Trade helps them to survive in a
competitive international market. And by building
long-term relationships with the low-income coffee
farmers who grow the coffee you drink, Fair Trade
helps make meaningful connections between producers
overseas and socially conscious consumers like you
here in the
United States
.
So when you purchase Fair Trade coffee, you are not just
buying great coffee. You are helping to build a
better world, one cup at a time!
►Fair Trade
Chocolate: The
CRS Fair Trade Program invites you to be a part of
the Chocolate Challenge: help us to sell more than
$200,000 of Divine Fair Trade chocolate by the end
of 2006. The more chocolate you buy and sell, the
sweeter life becomes for the farmers in
Ghana
whose cocoa is used in Divine chocolate. It's that
simple. Who knew promoting economic justice could be
so delicious?
Work
of Human Hands:
This
is a catalog done in conjunction with SERRV
International. The project involves selling products
made in third world countries, with a greater share
of money going back to the people. This would be a
great idea for a booth at a parish festival or
holiday boutique.
►Fair Trade
Handcrafts: Catholic
Relief Services and A Greater Gift bring you high
quality, fairly traded handcrafts and gourmet food
items from disadvantaged producers all over the
world through the Work of Human Hands program.
What does it mean to say that these items are fairly traded?
It means that the people who produce them earn a
fair price, get access to credit and training, and
maintain long-term relationships with A Greater Gift
rooted in the principles of human dignity and
economic justice. So when you participate in Work of
Human Hands, everyone wins—you get high-quality
one-of-a-kind handcrafts and the people who created
them get hope for a better future for themselves and
their families.
Get
involved in Work of Human Hands today, and start
building a better world, one purchase at a time!
Food
Fast:
Food Fast is Catholic Relief Services' 24 hour
hunger awareness retreat for youth in grades 8-12.
It is designed for participants to learn about some
of the factors that cause many of our brothers and
sisters around the world to live with hunger and
poverty, and what agencies like Catholic Relief
Services are doing to address these causes while
relieving their effects. www.foodfast.org
The
Catholic Relief Services Collection. This collection is a primary source of funds for CRS and assists:
