Washington D.C., Jan 12, 2010 / 00:26 am
The 2010 Collection for the Church in Latin America will be taken up in most U.S. parishes on the weekend of January 23-24. The collection, which has “Keep Faith” as its theme, is intended to assist the pastoral needs of the region by supporting dioceses, parishes and other Catholic institutions.
In 2009 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Subcommittee for the Church in Latin America distributed $6.8 million among 479 projects for catechesis, evangelization and training of religious personnel.
Its projects included helping in the formation of 20 novices and 70 junior sisters in Peru, evangelism among the Mapuche indigenous communities and training for 72 seminarians in the Archdiocese of Monterrey, Mexico, a USCCB press release says.
In August 2009 the subcommittee led a delegation to Cuba to observe how funds were used to rebuild churches and other structures after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike devastated the island in September 2008. The delegation toured the construction site of the new National Seminary, which the collection is helping to fund.