WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’
(USCCB) Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe
approved over $4.8 million in funding for 206 projects in 22 countries in
Central and Eastern Europe.

Projects approved for funding include:

·
The Don Bosco Center for Education in Albania, founded
21 years ago, provides cultural, social, and academic resources to over 1,000
children from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. The center provides stability
and aid to the rapidly growing population of people from rural areas moving
into the city to find work. The center also offers elementary, middle and high
school education and has a vocational training center, a youth center, and a day
care center. The grant will assist with necessary updates to the building to welcome
more children and provide a safe environment for them.

·
A grant to support seven priests, five
hieromonks, and eight religious sisters that serve the parishes near the war
zone in Eastern Ukraine. The armed conflict periodically reaches into that
region making it a dangerous place to live. The priests and religious have
remained there to offer pastoral and humanitarian aid to those in need. This
grant will provide food, medicine and transportation costs to support the
priests and sisters as they offer pastoral care and humanitarian aid to the
tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in the region.

“As a family of faith, we stand with those who work
tirelessly to build the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, who continue to
face the challenge of overcoming decades of political and religious oppression,”
said Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on
Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, “We look to those living in
this region as an example of hope and perseverance and continue to support
their efforts to renew their communities.”

Other projects approved by the subcommittee include
scholarships, church construction, outreach to the poor, and evangelization
programs. Grants approved by the subcommittee support the Church in countries that
were oppressed by communist rule.

Grants are funded by the annual Collection for the Church
in Central and Eastern Europe. The national date for this collection is Ash
Wednesday, although dioceses may take it up on different days. The Subcommittee
on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe oversees the collection and
an annual grant program as part of the USCCB Committee on National Collections.
More information about the collection and who it supports can be found at www.usccb.org/ccee.

—

Keywords:
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Committee on National Collections,

Collection
for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Eastern
Europe, Albania, Ukraine, Don Bosco Center, youth, evangelization, pastoral
care, humanitarian

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3200

Source:: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops