Dear Sisters and Brothers,
“Let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
This challenging and inspiring quote from the New Testament is the theme for the First World Day for the Poor, which Pope Francis established at the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This special day will be celebrated this year on Sunday, November 19, the same date for the U.S. Bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) annual collection.
CCHD is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by funding community programs that encourage people in need to join together to make decisions, seek solutions and find ways to improve their lives in alignment with Catholic Social Teaching. You are essential to its success. Your generous donations will provide the vulnerable with the support they need to make a positive and lasting change in their lives.
For example, in Charleston, South Carolina, many children live in poverty. By engaging congregations and communities all over the city, the Charleston Area Justice Ministry, supported by CCHD funds, is working to break the poverty cycle by keeping children in school and out of the juvenile justice system.
Here in Hawaii, CCHD has supported a wide range of projects working with the most vulnerable, including HOPE Services Hawaii Inc. and the Pua Foundation, helping women returning from prison and families affected by incarceration. These projects are ways of supporting “love in deed and in truth.”
On the weekend of November 19, the second collection is the primary source of CCHD funding that offers hope every year to the poor struggling throughout the United States. Please remember, 25 percent of the collection’s proceeds stay in our diocese to support “love in deeds” with some of the most vulnerable here in Hawaii.
Pope Francis says he established the First World Day for the Poor so that “Christian communities can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need.” I encourage you all to give generously to this CCHD collection as a way to Witness to Jesus in deed and truth.
God bless you!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Rev. Larry Silva
Bishop of Honolulu
