Mass Stipends

Since ancient times, the Catholic faithful have supported their priests and showed their appreciation for their ministry by means of Mass stipends. In essence, this involves asking the priest to celebrate Holy Mass for a particular intention and, in return, supporting him with a financial or equivalent contribution. This is not a matter of “paying” for the Holy Mass – which is impossible – but of expressing love and gratitude for such a priceless gift. At the same time, however, ...

The Diocese of Chinhoyi in northern Zimbabwe covers a vast area of over 20,000 square miles – considerably larger than some whole countries, like Switzerland or the Netherlands, for example. As a result, the diocese’s 22 parishes all cover very large areas, with numerous scattered villages that the priests have to minister to. The people here urgently need the support and guidance of a priest in their faith life: someone to bring them the sacraments, to help them grow in ...

Ever since the mid-1960s, there has been violent conflict in Colombia. During this time, around 6 million people were uprooted from their homes, and around 200,000 were killed. A further 60,000 people are still registered as missing.   Despite a peace accord in 2016, many areas of the country remain controlled by armed groups, and the violence has, in fact, escalated since last year. In the more rural regions, the growing of coca for the drug trade has all but wiped out the traditional agricultural cultivation. The situation is also exacerbated by a large influx of immigrants from neighboring Venezuela, thereby further intensifying the people‘s poverty.  For ...

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state. In the Horn of Africa, no fewer than 80 different ethnic groups live together, speaking as many different languages. And Christianity in Ethiopia has almost 2,000 years of history. Roughly 45 percent of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, whereas Catholic Christianity is still relatively young in the country, and Catholics today account for an extreme minority (just one percent) of its 112 million people.   Yet while Christianity in Ethiopia has ...

Approximately 89 percent of the 171.5 million inhabitants of Bangladesh are Muslim, while Catholics account for no more than a tiny minority of 0.2 percent. And over half of these Catholics belong to the ethnic minorities in the country.   Yet despite being so small numerically, the Catholic Church is very much alive, and her priests minister to the faithful with great devotion in, for the most part, very difficult conditions. The small villages within their parishes are often located in ...

This year, the Missionaries of Africa are celebrating the 200th birthday of their founder, Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie, who was born on October 31, 1825 in the small town of Huire, near Bayonne in southwest France. In 1867, he was appointed Archbishop of Algiers and, in 1868, as apostolic delegate for the Sahara and Sudan, later becoming a cardinal. He was especially opposed to slavery and human trafficking. In 1868, he founded the Missionaries of Africa, popularly known as the ...

The Archdiocese of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar covers the Bekaa Valley region in eastern Lebanon, an impoverished part of the country that, for years now, has been sliding ever deeper into crisis. Ever since the start of the war in neighboring Syria, its proximity to the border has made the situation there increasingly unstable. Those who are able to do so are leaving the country for a better life in places like Canada or Australia. Others are going to Beirut, the capital. ...

The small nation of Sierra Leone in West Africa has seen a great deal of suffering in the past 35 years. A bloody civil war, lasting from 1991 to 2002, has left deep scars that are still evident today. Thousands were killed; children were forcibly recruited as child soldiers; untold numbers of women and girls were subject to rape and sexual violence; and over 2 million people forced to flee their homes. At the same time, vast swaths of the ...

The Diocese of Nongstoin is in an impoverished part of India, in the state of Meghalaya, which is on the frontier with Bangladesh. It includes 22 parishes and 1,076 villages. 850 of the villages have Catholics living in them, and most of them are in remote, rural areas.   The people live overwhelmingly on traditional agriculture. If the main breadwinner falls ill, even for a few days, the entire family goes hungry. The roads are poor to non-existent, and many of ...

For the Church, Africa is a continent of hope. Not only is the number of faithful growing, but the number of priests is, too. In fact, many priests worldwide now come from Africa.   The priests live their vocation with joy and commitment, though their conditions are often difficult. In the Diocese of Masvingo, in south-east Zimbabwe, there are just 65 priests for about a quarter of a million Catholic faithful, and the region is over 27,000 square miles. The distances ...