cla-annual-report

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, This year so many of us have been praying for Bishop Rolando José Álvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Nicaragua, where he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for his conscientious defense of human rights. Thanks to your generous donations to the Collection for the Church in Latin America of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), your gifts are sustaining 49 seminarians from the Diocese of Matagalpa as they prepare for the priesthood. When you give to this collection, you support far more than institutions. You support life, faith, hope, love, and renewal. Just as young people did in the early Church, young people today are responding to adversity with faith, and you are helping them to do so. Your gifts of over $6.2 million provided 251 grants to dioceses in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean islands. With your contribution, you helped sustain important ministries such as evangelization, vocations and seminary training, marriage support, and the promotion of human life and dignity. In Mexico, you are helping former prisoners renew their love for Jesus as they receive job training, therapy, and help with social integration. In the capital of Venezuela, you equipped the Church to become a leader in the fight against human trafficking. And in the Amazonian region of Peru, your gifts are bringing the love and sacraments of Christ to remote Indigenous villages.