Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
This weekend, our parishes will be taking up the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
In the United States, more than 46 million people are living in poverty. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the Church’s anti-poverty program, which helps those in poverty to find hope and to build a more secure life. Support offered to this collection reaches those living on the margins and gives them a hand up, not a hand out.
In our Archdiocese, one of the programs that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development funds is an outreach program at the Cathedral of the Assumption that ministers to individuals who are low-income, homeless, jobless, hungry, sometimes recently released from prison and often desperate for help. The Personal Identification and Related Personal Assistance Program at the Cathedral offers assistance to individuals who because of financial hardship find it difficult to secure photo identification. The program offers assistance and resources in obtaining Kentucky identification cards, birth certificates, and social security cards. These forms of identification are essential documents needed for housing, social services, employment and employment assistance. The program also assists clients with bus tickets, which are needed for transportation to work, doctors’ appointments, and service providers and with incidental items such as eyeglasses, backpacks, socks, scarves, hoodies and lanyards. This program changes people’s lives by offering them assistance and hope and by providing a way for clients to overcome difficult situations.
Your support of this collection makes a difference for people living in poverty across the United States so, please prayerfully consider how you are able to help the CCHD this year. If you would like more information about the collection and those it supports, visit www.usccb.org/cchd/collection.
Thank you for your support. You and your family are in my prayers.
Sincerely yours in our Lord,
Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D.
Archbishop of Louisville
