Catholics in many dioceses throughout the United States will have the opportunity to give to support the Catholic Church’s communications efforts on May 28-29. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC) works to spread the Gospel through the media in all its forms. Its work is funded by an annual collection through which the faithful can support their local diocesan communications efforts, while also supporting national and international initiatives. #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts funds for the collection, which gives an option to those who wish to contribute to this work but are unable to give at Mass.
“Communicating the Gospel message is at the heart of evangelization. Through your gift, the Church is able to spread the faith, hope, and love of Jesus Christ, and of his Church, both here at home and abroad to people and places where the word of God is needed most,” said Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer, OFM Conv., of Atlanta, chairman of the USCCB Communication Committee’s Subcommittee on the Catholic Communication Campaign.
When you give at your parish, half of the gift one makes to the Catholic Communication Campaign collection remains in the donor’s diocese to support local communications projects. Such local projects often include support for diocesan newspapers or magazines, website updates and outreach campaigns, or Mass and television programs to reach the faithful and share the Good News. The other half goes to the USCCB to be awarded in the form of national and international grants. In 2021, the Catholic Communication Campaign awarded more than $3 million.
The CCC also awarded a grant to support the communications efforts related to a gathering in Chicago in June 2022 for “Journeying Together: A National Intercultural Encounter for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults.” This event supporting the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church combines synodal listening and discernment to hear the voices and perspectives of Catholics from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Other initiatives supported include evangelization, creating digital resources that help the faithful better understand the richness of Catholic teaching, producing documentaries and videos on the lives of exemplary modern-day Catholics on the path to beatification, and preserving Church history.
“The Catholic Communication Campaign not only shares the Good News in mainstream America, but it also reaches people on the furthest peripheries,” Archbishop Hartmayer said. Some examples of what the Catholic Communication Campaign has assisted with internationally include initiatives to keep mariners and seafarers connected to the faith, radio communications, and television ministry.
For instance, mariners may spend months far from home and family. An app that the Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America developed years ago to help seafarers maintain a spiritual life and find pastoral care in port is now technologically obsolete. Gifts to the campaign will allow the app to be redesigned and add a new feature to help cruise ship passengers locate a Catholic chaplain.
In Bolivia, the CCC supports Radio Pio XII, which since 1959 has championed the rights of indigenous people when they have been under violent attack. Gifts from this collection will replace its failing 20-year-old transmitter with a far more powerful one.
With help from this collection, Ukrainian war refugees are receiving messages of hope and pastoral support through LOGOS TV, a Catholic media ministry in Eastern Europe. Typical recent segments offered spiritual encouragement and showed a Slovak archbishop greeting refugees in a Catholic youth center.
For more information about the Catholic Communication Campaign and those who benefit from it, visit www.usccb.org/ccc.