Collection To Benefit Mission Cooperative Program

GEORGIA BULLETIN, Staff

Published: July 17, 2008

ATLANTA—Dollars slipped into the collection basket this weekend, July 19-20, will aid a shelter for homeless mentally ill adults in Chile, a crowded seminary in India and an impoverished Indian reservation in California, among others.

Nine programs run by Catholic religious orders and dioceses in needy areas of the world are to be helped by parishioners around the Atlanta Archdiocese through this collection.

Every church in the archdiocese is scheduled to organize a second collection for the Mission Cooperative Program. Its goal is to assist missionaries, religious orders and archdioceses with needed financial help. Some 200 groups apply to participate every year.

All the funds collected are pooled, and the proceeds are split evenly among the missionaries.

Last year, more than $68,000 benefited eight groups.

In the past, the date of the collection was left to individual parishes. This year officials in the archdiocese made the decision to have the collection taken up in all parishes on the same date and selected the recipients in an effort to keep the donations uniform and make a stronger focus in the areas where the financial aid is being sent.

This year, the missionaries being helped with the collection are as follows:

—The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for their work with the elderly in Mexico and on the Soboba Indian Reservation in California.

—The Diocese of Xuan Loc, Vietnam, to support 2,000 teachers of religious education.

—The Sinsinawa Dominicans to help with their work in Bolivia with education, health care and social services.

—The Diocese of Vijayapuram in Kerala, India, to renovate an overcrowded school for high school-age students considering the priesthood.

—The Hogar Protegido (Our Shelter) in Chile, which is home to seven mentally disabled adults.

—The Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, which has 12 provinces spread from India to Chile.

—The Columban Fathers, who provide mission education programs and other services in 13 countries where the priests serve.

—The Diocese of Luebo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the average person lives on $300 a year.

—The Diocese of Caldas, Colombia, where there is one priest for every 4,228 Catholics.

For more information about this special appeal, contact Christine Heusinger, Office of Stewardship, at (404) 885-7277 or cheusinger@archatl.com.