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January 24, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
More than one-third of the dioceses in the United States face significant challenges due to priest shortages, lack of funds, remote geography, or impoverished parishes. The Catholic Home Missions Appeal, which began in 1924, supports these dioceses to serve the varied needs of their parishioners. Home missions are those Latin and Eastern Rite dioceses in the United States, its territories, and former territories that cannot provide basic pastoral services to Catholics without outside help. Currently, more than seventy dioceses are home missions.
The Catholic Home Missions program provided over $8.1 Million in grants to mission dioceses last year to support basic operations, faith formation, and vocations, among other needs. Examples of funded projects include training volunteer youth ministers and funding Sr. Thea Bowman Catholic School to empower Black students in the economically distressed Diocese of Belleville; forming lay catechists for remote sacramental preparation and enhancing pastoral care at Hope House residential facility in the island-based Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago; integrating Latino culture through Spanish-language marriage mentoring in the Diocese of Dodge City; and in the resource-strapped Diocese of Steubenville, projects included bolstering family life programs, Project Rachel for post-abortion healing, and youth evangelization events such as adventure camps and conferences.
I encourage you to be generous on the weekend of February 1 to help strengthen the Church at home. Your support will truly have an impact on the faithful in mission dioceses. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/home-missions.
With every prayerful best wish, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Robert J. McManus
Bishop of Worcester