ANNUAL CATHOLIC APPEAL

What is the Annual Catholic Appeal?

The Annual Catholic Appeal was initiated in 1959 to provide for the educational, human, pastoral and spiritual needs of the people of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties. The Appeal enables our church to implement and administer critical services in a comprehensive framework in order to carry out the work of Jesus Christ. It would not be possible to carry out His work without your assistance.
The youth and young adults are the future of the Church. We need to provide outstanding education and quality faith formation opportunities for them.

• More than 3,800 students attend our 16 Catholic elementary schools, pre-K through eighth grade. Nearly 1,100 students attend our 4 Catholic high schools.

• More than 30,000 students from grades K-12 participate in parish-based religious education activities in the Diocese of Springfield. These students are taught by more than 1,800 catechists trained by the Diocese.

• Nearly 300 students attend weekly Mass at the Newman Center at the University of Massachusetts. In addition, 19 clergy and 10 religious are “alums” of the Newman Center.

• Homework House – More than 142 students from the poorest areas in Holyoke receive after-school assistance at 2 locations of the Homework House. A plan is in place to open a Homework House location in Springfield to serve students in that area.

• The Catholic Youth Center – More than 900 students participate in programs at the Catholic Youth Center in Pittsfield

• Providence Ministries provides shelter and meals to our brothers and sisters in need. A food pantry and used furniture store provide necessities at a fair price for those in need. Without these services, many of them would go hungry and be sleeping on the streets.

• Take & Eat provides nearly 45,000 meals to elderly and disabled home-bound on weekends and holidays. It also provides much needed social contact for many of our home-bound brothers and sisters. Currently there are more than 30 communities that participate in the Take and Eat program.

• More than 1,000 developmentally disabled individuals throughout the four counties of western Massachusetts receive assistance through Jericho, The Bureau for Exceptional Children and Adults. The staff at Jericho strives to bring dignity, respect, and wholeness into the lives of people with disabilities.

• Twenty seminarians from the Diocese of Springfield are currently studying to be the priests of the future.

• Nearly 1,700 people chose the Rite of Christian Initiation between 2005 and 2010 and joined the Catholic Church here in Springfield.

• Financial support is provided to St. Michael’s Residence, a retirement center for elderly clergy, and also, to a retirement fund for the many elderly religious who committed and dedicated their lives to serve the Church and us.

• One-half million viewers each week have access to the uplifting news from throughout Western Massachusetts during Catholic Communications’ half-hour news magazine broadcast of “Real to Reel.”

• 28,000 home-bound sick and elderly are spiritually nourished each week though Catholic Communications’ broadcast of the Mass, “Chalice of Salvation.”

• 18,367 Catholics relied on Catholic Communications’ news web site iobserve.org accessing 504,584 items during 2007. The diocesan magazine, The Catholic Mirror, published 8 times per year by Catholic Communications, reaches 64,000 homes.