Collection for church in Latin America takes place Jan. 27-28

Published: 2007-01-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Forming Disciples, Building One Church" is the theme of the 2007 national Catholic collection for the church in Latin America. In most U.S. dioceses the collection will be taken up at parish Masses the weekend of Jan. 27-28. The collection "enables the local Catholic churches throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to support the formation of disciples of Jesus Christ across generations, cultures and vocations," said Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange, Calif., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Church in Latin America. Last year U.S. Catholics donated $6.5 million to the collection, and the bishops' Secretariat for the Church in Latin America oversaw the distribution of $7 million to 485 projects. Msgr. Carlos Quintana Puente, executive director of the secretariat, said one project in 2006 was a continent-wide grant of $250,000 to the Latin American bishops' council, CELAM, to help fund preparations for the fifth-year assembly of Latin American bishops coming up this May.

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