sfca-annual-report

In Kenya—where the stress, grief, and job loss of the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed many families—your gifts are restoring hope and love. With a grant you made possible, Catholic married couples have been trained as mentors to other couples, teaching them how to resolve even the worst difficulties and grow together in faith. Prisoners are of great concern to the bishops of Cameroon. Human rights groups rank the prisons in that country among the worst in the world. The Church has long had a ministry of offering spiritual comfort to inmates in these prisons, but a new grant from the Solidarity Fund is intended to bring change to the system. As clergy and lay ministers adopt new ways to accompany traumatized people, they will also learn how to address human rights abuses and advocate for better conditions. Grants from the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa bring joy; they restore faith, hope, and love and encourage beauty, truth, and goodness. Your gifts to this collection are never merely a financial transaction. The Holy Spirit works through them to carry out Jesus’ mission to proclaim glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free (see Lk 4:18). More information is available at www.usccb.org/africa . Thank you for your love for the people of my homeland and for all of Africa. Please continue to pray for them and to give and pray as generously as you are able. Your brother in Christ,

Most Rev. Peter L. Smith Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon Chairman, USCCB Subcommittee on the Church in Africa

2022 USCCB SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CHURCH IN AFRICA CHAIRMAN

Bishop David P. Talley, Diocese of Memphis Bishop Gerald L. Vincke, Diocese of Salina Bishop Thomas R. Zinkula, Diocese of Davenport CONSULTANTS Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap, Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Joseph William Tobin, CSSR, Archdiocese of Newark Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, Diocese of Bridgeport Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee

Msgr. Kieran E. Harrington Mr. Patrick Markey Mr. Donald Rogers Mr. Fritz Zuger STAFF Ms. Mary Mencarini Campbell, Executive Director Mr. Edward Kiely, Director Ms. Mireille Gbetholancy-Kun, Grant Specialist

Bishop Peter L. Smith, Auxiliary, Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon SUBCOMMITTEE Bishop Gregory W. Gordon, Auxiliary, Diocese of Las Vegas Bishop Curtis Guillory, SVD, Emeritus, Diocese of Beaumont Bishop Gerald Kicanas, Emeritus, Diocese of Tucson Bishop Barry C. Knestout, Diocese of Richmond Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, Diocese of Albany

Ms. Andrea Lopez, Grants Administrator* Mr. Roy Molina, Grants Administrator°

*Andrea Lopez’s tenure ended in January 2022. °Roy Molina’s tenure began in March 2022.