Editor’s note: This column was provided to Catholic News Service by Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer of Atlanta, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Catholic Communication Campaign of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Communications. The annual national collection for the CCC, which works to spread the Gospel through the media in all its forms, is scheduled for the weekend of May 28-29. Archbishop Hartmayer is a former principal of Archbishop Curley in Baltimore.
Among Ukraine’s millions of war refugees and internally displaced people, its people receive messages of hope and pastoral support through LOGOS TV, a media ministry of the Byzantine Catholic Church. With programming that includes livestream videos of liturgies and prayer services, news of the Church’s response to the pastoral needs of the victims and refugees of war, and catechetical videos sharing the teachings and traditions of the Eastern Catholic Church, LOGOS TV is connecting those displaced by war with the Church throughout the region.
Shortly before war broke out in Ukraine, the Catholic Communication Campaign granted LOGOS TV funds to expand its satellite transmission to reach well beyond Slovakia and western Ukraine. This has allowed LOGOS TV to connect Eastern-rite Catholics throughout Eastern Europe with important news. As I write, one of LOGOS TV’s news stories, for example, features Archbishop Ján Babjak, metropolitan of Presov, Slovakia, welcoming Ukrainian refugees at a Catholic youth center.
In our universal Church, the gifts of everyday Catholics in the United States have helped assure the many displaced Ukrainians that the Church stands with them, thanks to the Catholic Communication Campaign.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Communication Campaign works to spread the Gospel through the media in all its forms. Its work is funded by an annual collection which many dioceses will take up on May 28-29. Through contributions to the collection, the Church is able to share the love of Jesus at home and abroad.
Half of every dollar donated to the parish’s collection remains in the donor’s diocese for local Catholic communications outreach. The other half supports national and international initiatives to aid the Church in communicating the Gospel message.
In 2020, that support included creating infrastructure for parishes to stream Mass online as we all abruptly faced closures in our parishes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other local efforts supported by the collection include helping diocesan newspapers or magazines, website updates and outreach campaigns, or Mass and television programs to reach the faithful and share the good news.
The Catholic Communication Campaign distributed more than $3 million in national and international grants in 2021. In addition to traditional media, the Catholic Communication Campaign works to share the good news through digital media and other communications initiatives.
One such example is the ongoing development of an app to help seafarers and mariners, who may spend months far from home and family, maintain a spiritual life during voyages and find pastoral care in port. Thanks to the generosity of Catholics to the collection, the Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America will soon update and redesign its Stella Maris app with a new feature to help cruise ship passengers locate a Catholic chaplain while at sea.
Another example of the CCC funds at work can be found in a remote region of Bolivia where Radio Pio XII’s 20-year-old transmitter is on the verge of failing. Since 1959, the radio station, operated by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, has stood boldly for the human rights and dignity of indigenous people when they have been under violent attack. The gifts of Catholics to the Catholic Communication Campaign collection are helping to replace the old transmitter with one that is far more powerful and can share the Good News more broadly.
I hope you will consider giving generously when your parish takes up the collection for the Catholic Communication Campaign on May 28-29 — or whenever this collection is taken in your diocese. #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts funds for the CCC, which gives an option to those who wish to support the program but are unable to give at Mass.
Your gift benefits your local diocese and their communication efforts, and it will supply far more than technology — it will spread the faith, hope and love of Jesus Christ, and of his Church, to people and places where the word of God is needed most.
For more information on efforts supported through the USCCB’s Catholic Communication Campaign, visit www.usccb.org/ccc.
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