April 3, 2003

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information, Contact:
Bud Bunce (503) 233-8373
bbunce@archdpdx.org

Collection for Catholic Home Missions

        The annual collection for the Catholic Home Missions will be taken up in the
parishes of the Archdiocese of Portland on the weekend of April 26 – 27. The purpose
of the collection is to help strengthen the Church at home. Eighty-five dioceses in the
United States, including Eastern Rite Dioceses, receive grants from the Catholic Home
Missions Appeal. These mission dioceses, including the Diocese of Baker in eastern
Oregon, rely on support from this appeal to assist parishes and missions, evangelization
outreach, religious education, campus ministry, seminary training, lay ministry training
and major ethnic ministries for Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and Native
Americans.

        The Catholic Home Missions office notes "in the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, the
pastor celebrates Mass twice a month at St. Mary's Parish in Elgin. On the other
Sundays, a deacon leads a Communion service while the pastor serves parishes in two
other towns, La Grande and Union. Only 33 diocesan priests are available to meet the
needs of 36 parishes and 28 missions in this 66,900 square-mile rural diocese."
The Catholic Home Missions Appeal is vitally important to the dioceses in Alaska.
The Diocese of Juneau is the smallest U.S. diocese. Most of its 11 parishes and 13
missions are only accessible by air or sea. In the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming,
many parishioners must travel 45 miles for Mass and religious education. In the
Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, only 27 of the diocese's 69 parishes have a resident
priest to celebrate Mass.

        The Catholic Home Missions Appeal also provides support for dioceses in U.S.
dependencies of the Pacific and Caribbean, including the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mission
dioceses are in Appalachia, the Deep South, the Southwest, and Mountain West.
Mission dioceses often have great distances yet few Catholic institutions to carry out
their adult education and evangelization programs.

        Catholics in the Archdiocese of Portland are asked to be generous in their
support of the Catholic Home Missions appeal on the weekend of April 26 – 27.

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