Projects in Need
A Convent for the St. Vincent’s Sisters in Belize
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Belize is a small country of only about 400,000 souls in Central America. Since it is a former British colony, English is spoken here. But many of its inhabitants are migrants from other Central American countries. Agriculture is the main source of economic income in the country, and many people live and work on the banana, orange, and coconut plantations. Tourism is also important, and building work in the main tourist areas is a major source of employment, as is ...
Help for the Priestly Formation of 76 Religious in Nigeria
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Nigeria is a dangerous country for Christians, especially for priests. In the past 10 years, over 150 priests were abducted, and over a dozen were murdered. And yet the number of vocations is not falling; on the contrary, it is even increasing, and there are many young men who desire to become a diocesan or religious priest. One congregation that is blessed with numerous vocations is the Sons of Mary, Mother of Mercy, a congregation founded in 1970, in Nigeria‘s ...
A Tent for Youth Meetings and Pastoral Events in Ukraine
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As a result of the war, most people in Ukraine are suffering fear, trauma, and psychological stress, while many are torn by feelings of hatred and rage. So many families have been broken up, and in many cases, unable to get together again. The healing of souls is every bit as important as the easing of immediate material needs and the eventual rebuilding of cities and physical infrastructure after the war. And so, in addition to practical aid for refugees ...
Mass Stipends for Priests in Bangladesh
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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 ...
Help for the Training of 221 Seminarians in the Congo
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Almost one-third of all seminarians in the world today are from the continent of Africa. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, the number of priestly vocations is gratifyingly large. In the archdiocese of Kinshasa, there are no fewer than 221 young men currently training for the priesthood. The rector of the seminary, Father Emmanuel Kwazifwanga Abita, knows all their life stories. He tells us, “One of our candidates already felt the desire to become a priest as ...
Help to Repair Three Churches in Mozambique
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Last year, on the Third Sunday of Advent, in the early morning, tropical cyclone Chido cut a swath of devastation through the province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, a region sadly already plagued for several years by Islamic jihadist terrorism, and where hundreds of thousands of civilians are homeless refugees. With wind speeds initially bordering on 125 miles an hour, the cyclone tore through homes, schools, hospital clinics, and kindergartens, flattening trees and electricity pylons and knocking out the ...
Mass Stipends for 46 Priests in Africa
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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 ...
Help for the Training of Seminarians in Brazil
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The Diocese of Rio Branco lies in western Brazil. Large sections of this area of over 40,000 square miles are covered in rainforest. A remote and inaccessible region with vast distances and many settlements only accessible via water, it has a population of about 700,000 people, of whom approximately half a million are Catholic. There is a grave shortage of priests within the diocese, with just 39 active priests, so that on average, each one has to minister to almost ...
Help for a Contemplative Community in Indonesia
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In the year 1212, the young and beautiful Chiara Offreduccio di Favarone slipped quietly out of her wealthy parental home, leaving behind her loved ones, her safety, and her comfort, in order to embrace a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience and give the rest of her life to her bridegroom Jesus Christ. She had been “infected” by the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi, and so her horrified family were faced with a fait accompli. She had her hair ...
Support for Religious Sisters in the Dominican Republic
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Most people tend to think of the Dominican Republic as a holiday paradise, with idyllic sandy beaches. Many are astonished to discover that there is, in fact, great poverty there. The west of the country, bordering on its crisis-ridden neighbor, Haiti, is an almost forgotten region, facing major economic, social, and pastoral challenges. The poverty is particularly extreme in the so-called “Bateyes.” These were originally temporary hut settlements, built in the first half of the 20th century, for use by ...