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May 7, 2024By OSV News
WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- The annual collection for the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign takes place in most U.S. parishes during Masses the weekend of May 11-12.
Half of the gifts to the diocesan collection stay in the participating diocese where they support the local diocese's communications programs. The other half supports communication activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and some projects across the United States and abroad, according to an April 29 USCCB news release.
"Jesus called us to take his message of love, mercy, and salvation to the ends of the earth," said Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee on Catholic Communication Campaign. "His first disciples reached hearts eager to hear this message by preaching to crowds, writing letters, and personal encounters with people they met on their travels."
Today, Jesus' disciples "share this same message of hope through videos, podcasts and social media," which is what the Catholic Communication Campaign "is all about," he wrote in a column provided to OSV News.
Some dioceses use other dates for the collection, and #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts donations for the collection.
According to the Catholic Communication Campaign's most recent annual report, more than $3.6 million in campaign funds supported both national and international Catholic media outreach in 2022. About 35% of those funds supported evangelization through media, such as podcasts, videos and documentaries. A nearly equal amount underwrote Catholic News Service in Rome, which has provided the Catholic Church in the United States with in-depth coverage of the Vatican and the pope since 1950.
Smaller amounts subsidized a wide range of projects, the report said, such as equipping church-related social ministries with the digital tools to promote concerns such as ecology, human life and dignity, social justice and immigration reform, the report said. Some funds also went to media training and projects to preserve church history.
It added that the campaign sponsors Catholic Current, a weekly news show about activities of the U.S. bishops that is available via YouTube and carried by some Catholic television and radio stations. The campaign also supports the USCCB's video reflections on the daily Mass readings, featuring which lay and religious leaders from various cultural backgrounds and pastoral experiences.
As chairman of the USCCB's Subcommittee on the Catholic Communication Campaign, Archbishop Hartmayer said he is "awed by the power of media to instantly reach people across the globe."
The campaign "helps the Catholic Church use these tools with love, for good and to the glory of God," he added.