Campaign for Human Development

Dear friends in Christ,

Nearly 1.7 million households in Michigan could not afford basic household necessities such as housing, child care, health care, food, and transportation in 2017. (2019 ALICE Report, Michigan Association of United Ways) These are our neighbors. Their story is similar to the story of so many others around the country. Families who work but cannot make ends meet. You have the opportunity to help your neighbor through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) collection. This collection will be taken up in our diocese next weekend, November 23-24.

The funds raised in this annual collection help to provide solutions at the grassroots level; empowering peo- ple to identify problems, make decisions, and find ways to improve their lives and neighborhoods. In this year’s message for the World Day for the Poor, Pope Francis says, “Jesus who inaugurated his kingdom by placing the poor at the center, wanted to tell us precisely this: he inaugurated the kingdom, but he has entrusted to us, his disciples, the task of carrying it forward with responsibility for giving hope to the poor.”

The CCHD collection is a tangible way to respond to this call. This collection is the primary source of funding for the CCHD’s anti-poverty grants and education programs. Our diocese retains 25 percent of what is collected at your parish to help fund local anti-poverty projects. Programs that received grants because of your generosity last year include St. Patrick-St. Anthony’s migrant ministry in Grand Haven, Community EnCompass Youth Empowerment Program in Muskegon, Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan’s Parents for Healthy Homes and Catholic Charities West Michigan’s pregnancy counseling and support services program.

Organizations funded by the CCHD adhere to the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church. Your support for this collection makes a difference for our neighbors. Please prayerfully consider how you can help this year. For more information about the collection and those whom it supports, visit http://www.usccb.org. Thank you for joining me in the work of bringing hope to those living in poverty.

Sincerely yours in Christ, Most Reverend David J. Walkowiak, Bishop of Grand Rapids