Through the Diocesan Office of Catholic Social Services and partnering Catholic Social Service Agencies, the Diocese integrates the principles of Catholic Social Teaching through emergency assistance, anti‐poverty initiatives, education and advocacy, and counseling. In response to the call of Pope Francis, our mission is to be a “Church of  the poor” by providing care and assistance to individuals and families in need throughout Diocese. As a vibrant Catholic community, in collaboration with our parishes, this endowment fund will enable us to work in faith and in charity to provide vital support in the following areas:

Diocesan Parish Counseling

Our priests have witnessed, and in turn, expressed a critical need for counseling services among their parishioners. With this in mind, a new program has been developed to assist our pastors by providing short term professional counseling through qualified, Catholic counselors to individuals and/or families who would be referred by pastors. These counselors would provide professional counseling back‐up to clergy. Priests would feel comfortable with the referral to counselors who have been vetted re: “Catholic” issues and appropriate professional qualifications. This program was introduced in September 2014.

Community Services

Sharing information, networking and building collaboration among all parishes, Catholic Social Service agencies and diocesan efforts provide a more effective outreach to struggling individuals, families and communities. It is critical that these services are supported with ample resources that help them remain available and dynamic.

A restricted endowment will be created to enable the Diocese to award grants to parishes and Catholic Social Service agencies to address present and emerging social service issues. Donations to the endowment campaign will also be a resource to supplement our special collections for disaster relief when a sense of urgency is a key component in the solution.