AMERICA/UNITED STATES - US Bishops award $4 million dollars to support pastoral needs of the Church in Latin America

Washington, DC (Agenzia Fides) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America approved in June an additional $1.57 million in grants to 105 pastoral projects in 21 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean for a total of $4 million in the first half of this year.
These funds mainly assist the Church by providing essential support for seminary and religious formation, religious education, catechesis and youth ministries, evangelization, lay formation and ministry, diaconate training and research. The grants enable Catholics in these regions—who are rich in faith, but often lacking in material resources—to participate more fully in the life of the Church as disciples and respond to their call to mission. Among the projects being helped by this funding are youth ministry programs that continue to evangelize and engage young Catholics in countries including Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic; rural ministry programs in Chile, Brazil and Peru; support for family pastoral ministry, including aid to experts who work in centers that promote Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods attend the third Pan-American Congress on NFP to be held in Honduras July 22-27.
Grants were also approved in order to support important events including the 49th International Eucharistic Congress that took place in Quebec, Canada, in June. Funds were awarded to assist participants from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador and Paraguay in attending the Congress. Support was also given to the third all-America Mission Congress (CAM 3) in Quito, Ecuador, in August.
Since the beginning of the year, the Subcommittee has approved a total of 246 projects for $3,827,000. Annually, this Subcommittee of the USCCB Committee on National Collections awards 500-600 grants over three grant cycles. In 2007, 562 grants were awarded for a total of $7,722,314. This was the largest number of grants ever distributed in a single year. The Subcommittee will provide another round of grants in November. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 8/7/2008)