chma-annual-report

IN 2022 THE CATHOLIC HOME MISSIONS APPEAL FUNDED more than $9.8 million in grants to home mission dioceses to help support the daily work of their parishes and their ministries to youth, immigrants, families, and young men discerning vocations to the priesthood. Home mission dioceses are found throughout the United States and its territories where the Catholic population is too small or too poor—or both—to sustain ministry and evangelization without outside assistance. More than 27% of gifts to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal provided parishes with basic assistance and supported diocesan offices with pastoral planning, communications, fund raising, and other essential services. The next largest outlay was 21% for seminary education and vocations, followed by 17% for faith formation programs such as evangelization, campus ministry, and youth ministry. Other assistance supported cultural ministries to Hispanic/Latino and Native American populations as well as life and dignity ministries, including pro-life and prison ministries. The stories in this annual report illustrate the many ways your contribution to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal supports the efforts of these dioceses to draw people closer to Christ. In addition to the annual assistance requested by dioceses and eparchies, several unsolicited grants—totaling more than $1.8 million—were approved to support national and regional needs. These included funds for local activities related to the National Eucharistic Revival, World Youth Day, professional development opportunities for diocesan staff, and assistance in repairing church properties following natural disasters . AMARILLO

The Diocese of Amarillo, in Texas, covers more territory than West Virginia but serves fewer people than live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Only about 10% of the 428,000 residents are Catholic, primarily Hispanics/Latinos who work in the cattle and meatpacking industries. In 2022, 38 priests, 48 deacons, and 150 sisters traveled long circuits among 64 parishes, most of which are remote and survive only with support from the Catholic Home Missions Appeal. With help from the appeal, participation in adult faith formation has doubled across the diocese. New families have been drawn to the Church through a renewed catechumenate for children, as teachers learn how to make instruction creative and inviting. A revived youth ministry is growing rapidly in rural areas. The teenage Hispanic/Latino participants are eager to become leaders and have become evangelists to their

parents. The Catholic Home Missions Appeal also supports a prison ministry that is bearing tremendous fruit in the seven penitentiaries that lie within the diocese’s 26,000-square-mile territory. Each correctional facility is linked to a parish for access to clergy, while lay ministers offer inmates pastoral assistance and advocacy. Many inmates who participate in retreats organized by the prison ministry go on to join the prison’s faith formation program and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Patrick J. Zurek every year. HOUMA-THIBODAUX Located among the bayous of Louisiana’s coastal Cajun country, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux is historically Catholic—but a high rate of poverty limits the ability of this Catholic population to financially support the