Second Collection: Catholic Home Missions Appeal

“Home Missions” is the name for dioceses and parishes in the United States, including its territories and former territories, which cannot provide basic pastoral services to Catholics without outside help. Basic pastoral services include Mass and sacraments, religious education, and ministry training for priests, deacons, religious sisters, and lay people.

Surprisingly, the Catholic Church is poorly established in many parts of our country, especially Appalachia, the South, the Southwest along the Mexican border, the Rocky Mountain states, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and remote island chains like the Marshalls and the Carolines in the Pacific. Nearly 40% of dioceses in the U.S. (the green areas in the map below) are considered home missions and are funded by this collection — including the Diocese of Baker here in Oregon.