One America

By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Editor
(From the issue of 1/24/02)

The generosity of Catholics in the Arlington Diocese has been well documented during the past few years. The response to special collections to assist Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with relief efforts in Central America and Kosovo were at, or near the top, when compared to other Catholic dioceses across the country.

If history repeats itself, this week's second collection to support the Church in Latin America will showcase Arlington's generosity as well. The diocesan donation of $194,989 in the 2000 special collection placed it fourth overall in the entire country. Only the archdioceses of Boston ($370,000), St. Louis ($210,000) and New York ($200,000) surpassed Arlington's generosity, according to statistics released by the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for the Church in Latin America.

The local 2001 collection was even more impressive, bringing in $227,679.88. But statistics were not available to compare to other U.S. dioceses.

Perhaps the large number of recent immigrants from Latin America to Northern Virginia (conservatively estimated to be in excess of 250,000) has raised the overall awareness of the Catholic community here to the needs in that area. But many diocesan parishes — including St. Mary of Sorrows in Fairfax Station, Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria and St. Mark in Vienna — have been assisting "sister" parishes in Latin America for more than a decade, indicating a keen understanding of the Church's social justice mission.

The theme of this year's collection is "Building One Church in One America." Since its inception in 1966, the annual collection has raised nearly $100 million. The funds collected are used to support grants to educate priests, religious and lay pastoral leaders; assist missionaries and pastoral workers; train catechists and youth ministers; and support the Church's work with the poor in Latin America.

Among the grants awarded last year were:

• Ongoing hurricane relief to six countries in the Caribbean and Central America which were ravaged by hurricanes Georges and Mitch.
• Participation in World Youth Day 2000 activities in Rome by 256 youth and young adults from 10 countries.
• Purchase of Creole-language Bibles and educational materials for evangelization in the Diocese of Port-de-Paix, Haiti.
• Formation and preparation of Catholic school teachers in the Archdioceses of Managua, Nicaragua.
• Pastoral work among abused women in the Diocese of Bucaramanga, Colombia.

"The Holy Father calls us to build and strengthen a culture of solidarity among the community of faithful spread throughout the American hemisphere," said Bishop Edmond Carmody of Corpus Christi, chairman of the Bishops' Committee for the Church in Latin America. "Through the generosity of Catholics in the United States and the tireless work of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America, we are striving to build one Church in America," he said.

U.S. Catholics contributed more than $6.3 million in last year's collection.

"The foundation of the ever-growing relationship with our brothers and sisters in Latin America goes back over 40 years, when the U.S. bishops opened the precursor of our current Secretariat for Latin American in 1960, and to 1966 when the national collection was established," said Jesuit Father John W. Swope, the Secretariat's executive director.

In a recent letter thanking Bishop Loverde and the diocese for their gift in 2001, Bishop Carmody wrote, "I thank you for your ongoing leadership in the realization of this work and ask for your continued commitment to increase the support from this conference in the years to come."— M.F.F.

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