chma-annual-report

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As a bishop, when I need inspiration, my favorite reading—after the Bible—includes reports about ministries that the Catholic Home Missions Appeal has made possible with support from Catholics like you. Home mission dioceses are dioceses of the United States and its territories that cannot sustain ministry without outside help. In catching up with the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southern Louisiana—bayou country beset by hurricanes and high rates of poverty—I was blessed to find video testimony from Nicole, a high school teacher and single mother of two. She is always pressed for time, yet she volunteers as a faith formation mentor in her parish. She explained that although she expected to help teenagers grow in faith, her own faith has grown even more. “I didn’t have time, but God made it for me. Because it’s for his glory,” she said of her decision to serve in this ministry, one of the diocese’s ministries supported by Catholic Home Missions. In other videos, teen participants spoke of what a difference it makes for them to discover Jesus by talking and praying about what is on their hearts, rather than by reading books and taking quizzes. You can listen to these testimonies at www.ctr-htdiocese.org/stories . These stories demonstrate a tiny fraction of the impact that parishioners make through gifts to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal. The $9.8 million that we distributed in 2022 allowed essential ministry to move forward in dioceses that cannot support themselves, due perhaps to severe poverty or the lack of a Catholic presence. In the Diocese of Amarillo, where cattle outnumber people in this part of Texas, inmates in seven prisons within the diocesan territory are experiencing spiritual transformation and faith through retreats organized by the diocese criminal justice ministry. This important ministry is