Washington D.C., Oct 29, 2019 / 08:30 am
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on Monday that it has allocated $9.9 million in grants for evangelization in the United States in the year 2020.
The grants will go to 77 dioceses and eparchies, chosen in September by the USCCB's Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions. The subcommittee met in El Paso, one of the recipient dioceses. All the dioceses picked to receive grants "face significant challenges to their evangelization efforts due to geography, low populations, and poverty," an Oct. 29 statement from the conference explained.
Money for these grants was raised through the Catholic Home Missions Appeal, a national collection taken up each year in April. A "home mission" refers to a diocese or parish in the United States or its territories that is unable to provide basic pastoral services, such as access to the sacraments, religious education, or ministry training, without outside assistance.
Selected grant recipients include the Diocese of Kalamazoo, which will use the money to support its migrant ministry outreach program. That program, now in its 20th year, reaches more than 15,000 migrant farmworkers in the diocese, and provides Mass, sacramental preparation, catechesis instruction and other services.