The results are in from the 175 projects that parishes and schools conducted during the Arlington diocese Week of Service last month.
Diocesan officials tallied the reports submitted by parishes and schools summarizing their work Nov. 9-16. Most projects addressed one of six tenets of Catholic social teaching: feed the hungry; clothe the naked; visit the homebound; advocate for life; minister to those in prison or returning to society from incarceration; and care for creation.
Parishes and schools generated 128,788 pounds of food, 663 gallons of beverages and $134,926 to address food insecurity. They collected a combined 11,650 articles of clothing for donation and visited or wrote to 1,191 homebound individuals, with parishioners of St. Charles Church in Arlington alone writing 300 care cards after Sunday Mass to remind nursing home residents and others that they are not alone, and that the parish is praying for them.
To support pro-life ministries, parishes and schools donated 5,358 items, such as diapers and formula, and raised $6,043. They also filled 1,300 backpacks with essential necessities for people who completed their prison terms, and planted 490 trees, including one at St. Ambrose School in Annandale in honor of a student who was recently killed in an automobile accident.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge called the Diocesan Week of Service an encouraging sign of the faithfulness and vitality of our diocese and said that practicing corporal and spiritual works of mercy is essential to our growth as people of faith.
“The Week of Service has also been cause to remember just how much our wider communities benefit when we proactively and publicly practice our Christian faith, assisting our brothers and sisters with steadfast love,” he said. “It is my hope that all carry forward the spirit of this Week of Service throughout the year, living intentionally as witnesses to Our Lord and his love through daily and frequent acts of service to those in greatest need, both spiritually and materially.”
“It is fitting that the Week of Service took place in the Jubilee Year of Hope during the week leading to the World Day of the Poor,” said Msgr. Robert C. Cilinski, diocesan episcopal vicar for charitable works and pastor of Nativity Catholic Church in Burke. “Catholics in our diocese, with charity for all, united to serve our brothers and sisters in need. It was ‘hope realized.’ ”
He said Father Don Rooney, pastor of St. Bernadette Church in Springfield, described his parish’s effort to provide 175,000 meals to those in need in Timor Leste as the most unifying experience he’d ever seen at the parish.
“The response (during the Week of Service) was one of overwhelming generosity and unity,” Msgr. Cilinski said. “Together, we deepened our commitment to charitable works. In our best moments, I think it can be said of us as was said of the early Christian community: ‘See how they love one another.’ ”
