Aid to global churches collection -

 
BISHOP'S LETTER OF SUPPORT

February 2025

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The season of Lent is marked by the call to recommit ourselves to the path of discipleship, namely through a conscious discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent call us to hone our spiritual strength and resources, that is to use our spiritual tools to pursue our highest vocation and desire to be raised with Christ into Heaven. The ashes we receive on Ash Wednesday are a symbolic sharing in Christ’s saving Passion. The ashes are a clear reminder of the inevitable passing of all worldly things. It is only in Christ that we find the possibility of our eternal happiness and redemption.

On the First Sunday of Lent, we also have an opportunity to participate in the special collection to benefit the Church in the neediest areas of the world, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe; and to support the works of charity carried out collectively by the bishops of our country through Catholic Relief Services. Your generous prayers and your gifts to this collection will help build churches and schools, train and educate priests and laypeople, publish Catholic newspapers, sustain orphanages, evangelize, and catechize children and adults, and provide scholarships to Catholic students.

For many years in Central and Eastern Europe, communist regimes persecuted Catholics by seizing churches, closing seminaries and convents, and imprisoning or killing clergy, religious sisters, and laypeople. Since the end of those communist governments, the Church is once again free to teach, evangelize, and gather for prayer, but new challenges such as the humanitarian crisis caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine have left people in greater need for prayer and support than ever. Your gifts to this special collection help the Church comfort those impacted by the war while also continuing its mission through education, pastoral ministry to families, and formation of seminarians.

For over 50 years, Catholics in the United States have expressed solidarity with the Church from Mexico to the Caribbean, to the southern tip of South America through the Collection. This collection also helps to strengthen families, fund Catholic education, and foster priestly and religious vocations in Latin America.

The Church in Africa leads the way in healing wounds of division and conflict, preaching the Gospel, and reconciling people in hope for just and lasting peace. Your support of the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa empowers the Church to fulfill its mission as peacemaker to those who have most suffered fear and violence.

And your support for this collection provides through Catholic Relief Services emergency assistance to victims of war and natural disasters; assists migrants and refugees who need housing, education, and specialized legal assistance; and supports travelers and others whose livelihoods require special pastoral support to access the sacraments. Among the most vulnerable of migrants are the victims of human trafficking.  

In recent weeks a large block of funding has been blocked by the US government that has assisted in funding these very important programs.  Your support to the Catholic Relief Service is more important than ever now to assist in maintaining life-saving support to our brothers and sister in need. 

Your prayerful solidarity makes a real difference to so many faithful attempting to build up the church, either again or for the first time, in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and other places around the world to help change and improve lives.

Thank you for your generosity. Please continue to pray for me, priests, deacons, consecrated religious, and for vocations especially in this season of Lent.

Your brother in Christ,
Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Apostolic Administrator, Diocese of Sioux City