WASHINGTON—With the goal of
strengthening and supporting the pastoral work of the Church in Latin America
and the Caribbean, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB)
Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America awarded nearly $3.2 million in grants
for 183 pastoral projects in the region for 2018. These most recent grants were
made at the Subcommittee’s meeting in November and bring the total awarded for pastoral
grants 2018 to almost $7.2 million. Four other projects were awarded in
response to natural disasters.

“Each year the generosity of
Catholics in the United States is transformed into programs that nourish the
faith of our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said
Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of the
Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America. “This generosity sustains the faith
for many marginalized and vulnerable people, like migrants and victims of
natural disasters.”

Instability in some areas of
Latin America has resulted in an increased number of migrants within the region
from countries like Venezuela, Colombia, and Haiti.
Projects in support of the pastoral care of migrants that received funding from
the Subcommittee include support to the Hermanas Misioneras de San Carlos
Borromeo in Ecuador and the Archdiocese of Santiago in Chile. The religious
congregation received a grant to support and integrate migrant families into
Ecuadorian society. Migrant families will receive spiritual support through
conferences, retreats, and catechetical formation. This project is anticipated
to reach over 1,500 beneficiaries. The Archdiocese of Santiago’s Department of
Migration received funds to provide formation to 250 pastoral ministers, many expected
to be migrants themselves, to learn about their rights and how to defend them
and work on evangelization of other immigrants. The project will also create
booklets as supporting material for the ministers as they work in parishes.

Additionally, three grants were
awarded to projects in Haiti to support rebuilding efforts of the Church in the
wake of Hurricane Matthew. Hurricane Matthew swept through Haiti in 2016, and the
country continues to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake. A grant to
the Diocese of Jérémie will be used for repairs and
reconstruction of three church buildings and a grant to the Diocese of Anse-à-Veau et Miragoâne will be used for
the reconstruction of two church buildings. These funds were awarded from the
Hurricane Matthew emergency collection that was taken in most dioceses last
year. In addition to grants to help with the reconstruction efforts after
Hurricane Matthew, the Subcommittee also funded a project to rebuild a church
destroyed during the 2010 earthquake. The funds for this rebuilding came from
the Special Collection for Haiti which took place in the aftermath of the
earthquake.

Other areas of funding for the Subcommittee’s
pastoral grants include seminarian and consecrated religious formation, prison
ministry, youth ministry, and lay leadership training. The issues covered by
these ministries are pro-life, environmental justice,
ministry to indigenous and African-Americans as well as urban ministries, among
others. “As it proclaims the Gospel of joy, the Church is called to develop
ministries to all those in need, whether materially or spiritually, and thus
the Subcommittee supports all the ministries available to the faithful,” said
Bishop Elizondo.

Grants are funded by the annual
Collection for the Church in Latin America, taken in many dioceses across the
U.S. on the fourth Sunday in January. The Subcommittee on the Church in Latin
America oversees the collection and an annual grant program as part of the
USCCB Committee on National Collections. It allocates revenue received from the
Collection for the Church in Latin America as grants across Latin America and
the Caribbean. More information about the Collection for the Church in Latin
America, the many projects it funds, and resources to promote it, can be found
at www.usccb.org/latin-america.

—
Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, Bishop Eusebio
Elizondo, Committee on National Collections, grants, migrants, Latin America,
evangelization, Collection for the Church in Latin America, Haiti
reconstruction, Venezuela, Colombia, Caribbean, Florida, Archdiocese of Santiago,
Diocese of Anse-à-Veau et Miragoâne, Diocese of Jérémie, natural disasters, Hurricane
Matthew, earthquake, pro-life, environmental justice

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Media Contact:
Judy Keane
202-541-3200

Source:: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops