(OSV News) — Dozens of “home mission dioceses” across the nation have received much-needed financial support, provided by the generosity of U.S. Catholics through an annual collection.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Dec. 1 that 69 mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies had been awarded a collective total of more than $7.8 million in grants.
The allocations — which ranged from $10,000 to approximately $145,000 — were determined by the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions, which met earlier in the fall to review the 2025-2026 grant applications.
The awarded funds were made possible through the USCCB’s annual Catholic Home Missions appeal. The collection, taken up in many dioceses and parishes on the last weekend in April, was established in 1998 to strengthen U.S.-based mission dioceses.
Donations to the appeal can also be made through the iGiveCatholic.org platform.
Mission dioceses rely on sustained aid, including funds from the annual collection, in order to provide basic pastoral services to the faithful.
In its announcement, the USCCB noted that the mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies receiving the grants “are found across the United States and its territories,” with many located “in regions with small Catholic populations in rural areas affected by economic hardship.”
The USCCB said the grants “support parish and diocesan operations, as well as ministries of evangelization, catechesis, and healing that grow and strengthen the Church.”
Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, who chairs the USCCB home missions subcommittee, said in a statement that parishioners contributing to the annual appeal “bring faith, hope and love where it is most needed,” regardless of the amount of their gift.
The donations “have a profound, positive impact on Catholics who face poverty or the isolation of being a small, minority faith,” he said.
Among the recipients for this year’s grants is the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota, with the $60,000 in funds applied to the diocese’s ministry on the Standing Rock Reservation, which covers 2.3 million acres in both South and North Dakota and is home to both the Lakota and Dakota nations.
The ministry, led by three Franciscan women religious and a priest, provides home visitation and parish faith formation for about 500 Catholics, as well as social support for 8,000 residents of various faiths.
The Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, received $50,000 to bolster its Office of Deliverance Ministry, which works to offer both spiritual and emotional care for those experiencing the wounds of sin and oppression. The more than 100 visits per month the ministry sees include prayers of healing and the sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick.
The USCCB subcommittee approved $145,000 for the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace, whose 24 priests serve some 11,000 parishioners across the nation, and which has no paid lay staff. The grant will make possible “a wide range of ministry, including a youth summer camp, retreats, family conventions and vocational discernment,” said the USCCB.
Bishop Zielinski said such programs “reveal the wide range of spiritual and financial needs that the Catholic Home Missions Appeal addresses.”
Noting that “parishioners in mission dioceses already give sacrificially from their limited means,” Bishop Zielinski said, “My prayer is that their example of faith will inspire the rest of us to dig deeper to help our neighbors carry out the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us.”
By Gina Christian | OSV News
US bishops award over $7 million in grants to home missions
(OSV News) — Dozens of “home mission dioceses” across the nation have received much-needed financial support, provided by the generosity of U.S. Catholics through an annual collection.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Dec. 1 that 69 mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies had been awarded a collective total of more than $7.8 million in grants.
The allocations — which ranged from $10,000 to approximately $145,000 — were determined by the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions, which met earlier in the fall to review the 2025-2026 grant applications.
The awarded funds were made possible through the USCCB’s annual Catholic Home Missions appeal. The collection, taken up in many dioceses and parishes on the last weekend in April, was established in 1998 to strengthen U.S.-based mission dioceses.
Donations to the appeal can also be made through the iGiveCatholic.org platform.
Mission dioceses rely on sustained aid, including funds from the annual collection, in order to provide basic pastoral services to the faithful.
In its announcement, the USCCB noted that the mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies receiving the grants “are found across the United States and its territories,” with many located “in regions with small Catholic populations in rural areas affected by economic hardship.”
The USCCB said the grants “support parish and diocesan operations, as well as ministries of evangelization, catechesis, and healing that grow and strengthen the Church.”
Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, who chairs the USCCB home missions subcommittee, said in a statement that parishioners contributing to the annual appeal “bring faith, hope and love where it is most needed,” regardless of the amount of their gift.
The donations “have a profound, positive impact on Catholics who face poverty or the isolation of being a small, minority faith,” he said.
Among the recipients for this year’s grants is the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota, with the $60,000 in funds applied to the diocese’s ministry on the Standing Rock Reservation, which covers 2.3 million acres in both South and North Dakota and is home to both the Lakota and Dakota nations.
The ministry, led by three Franciscan women religious and a priest, provides home visitation and parish faith formation for about 500 Catholics, as well as social support for 8,000 residents of various faiths.
The Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, received $50,000 to bolster its Office of Deliverance Ministry, which works to offer both spiritual and emotional care for those experiencing the wounds of sin and oppression. The more than 100 visits per month the ministry sees include prayers of healing and the sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick.
The USCCB subcommittee approved $145,000 for the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace, whose 24 priests serve some 11,000 parishioners across the nation, and which has no paid lay staff. The grant will make possible “a wide range of ministry, including a youth summer camp, retreats, family conventions and vocational discernment,” said the USCCB.
Bishop Zielinski said such programs “reveal the wide range of spiritual and financial needs that the Catholic Home Missions Appeal addresses.”
Noting that “parishioners in mission dioceses already give sacrificially from their limited means,” Bishop Zielinski said, “My prayer is that their example of faith will inspire the rest of us to dig deeper to help our neighbors carry out the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us.”
By Gina Christian | OSV News