CHMA-Annual-Report

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, If you long to hear the voice of Jesus, I urge you to tune into the Chaldean Voice radio channel (www.chaldeanvoice.com) and listen to prayer or song in Aramaic, the language that our Lord spoke when he walked the earth. Your gifts to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal support this ministry of the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, based in suburban Detroit. Chaldean Voice is about far more than preserving an ancient language. Although the Chaldean Catholic Church was born in the land that is now the northern region of modern Iraq, the Eparchy of St. Thomas is now the largest Chaldean eparchy in the world because so many Iraqis have fled the violence of war and persecution. Chaldean Voice and its digital partner, Mar Toma Productions, reach out worldwide to offer traumatized people words of spiritual comfort, inspiration, and practical support in Chaldean, Arabic, and English. That is what Jesus’ voice first called us to do in Matthew 25:31-46. He told us that when we help those who are hungry, thirsty, homeless, or naked—people who have lost everything and landed on our doorstep—that we are taking care of him. That teaching is an inextricable part of our pastoral ministry in Catholic diocese and parishes. In this report you will read about two other dioceses providing spiritual and pastoral support to refugees and migrants with grants from the Catholic Home Missions Appeal. The Diocese of El Paso and the Diocese of Laredo, each situated along the Texas-Mexico border, minister to thousands who have left everything they owned and fled across the border to escape violence or starvation-level poverty. These immigrant Catholics are faithful in worship—celebrations of a child’s baptism typically draw the whole neighborhood—yet cannot support their parish financially. Your gifts provide financial support to fund the catechists and lay evangelists who prepare those children for the sacraments and form their parents as disciples and as church leaders.