In the Diocese of Columbus, Home Missions collection will be taken on the weekend of April 25-26. I would like to thank you for your generosity on behalf of His Excellency the Most Rev. Bishop Earl K. Fernandes, and the USCCB Committee in charge of collection for Home Missions.
Mission dioceses lack the resources to provide the basic pastoral services for the faithful. These dioceses struggle with severe shortages of priests, poverty among parishioners, difficult or isolated terrain, religious hostility, and other circumstances that hinder the efforts to spread the faith. The Vatican Council is particularly eloquent on this point relative to the role of the laity; they are to “make Christ visible for others” (L.G., n.31). The smallest Catholic populations tend to exist in rural areas of the South, in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Carolinas, Appalachian regions and the Caribbean. As the Holy Father reminded us, our mission is both local and universal: “In Christ we are one, a family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures and experiences.” Let us under the guidance of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, we can renew our commitment to the Church’s missionary mandate, bringing the hope only found in Christ.
Mission Dioceses do marvelous work on among non-Christians, the urban poor, and minorities. They also promote mission awareness, vocations and train them for missionary work. Catholic Home Missions enable vocation directors from home mission dioceses and eparchies to grow and develop in their ministry of fostering priestly vocations at the annual National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors convention. One of the directors, Fr. Elias Dorham, who has been vocation director for the Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton, Massachusetts said, “Catholic Home Missions is helping in the work of vocations, but something that everyone in the Church has to realize is that vocations work is everyone’s responsibility. If you see a young [person] that you think may be called to appreciate religious life, don’t hesitate to say something to them, [to] encourage them to consider discerning” (Catholic Home Missions, Newsletter, Issue 2, 2025).
RELATED | Financial stewardship in the Diocese of Columbus
In fact, Home Missionaries are supported by freewill offerings and they support the poor families with food drive, and coat drives, etc. Let us ponder the message of our Holy Father: “Faith, dear friends, is a treasure to be shared. Every time brings with it difficulties, hardships and challenges, but also opportunities to grow in trust and in surrender to God” (Pope Leo XIV, Tuesday, February 17, 2026). Our help for the poor is a priority in all circumstance because God wants us to be sharers of our resources with minority and vulnerable in the society.
The USCCB’s Catholic Home Missions collection helps to fund 84 dioceses and eparchies in the United States, which represents roughly 44 percent of all U.S. dioceses. The funds gathered in the collection help the mission dioceses in the United States and its territories. Thank you for your sacrificial response and for all you do for the mission work of the Church. May our prayers, sacrifices, and financial support for the missions bring the expansion of the reign of Christ who shed His precious blood, very life for all mankind.
