"Catholic Campaign for Human Development"

November 10, 2009

The Year for Priests

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

One of the most humbling things about my job as bishop is receiving the many, many thank you notes for all the efforts around the archdiocese that help the disadvantaged.  I am heartened to read them, but almost all the time, I seem to be getting the credit for the great work of others.  The most recent example is Bishop Morin’s, the Chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops subcommittee on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), thank you for the Archdiocese’s $201,751.41 contribution to CCHD, which, by the way, is only 39 cents less than the amount we sent to the national office in 2002. 

The CCHD is the domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the United States Catholic Bishops.  It addresses the root causes of poverty issues in two ways.  First, it promotes and supports community-controlled, self-help organizations and second, it provides transformative educational opportunities for Catholics to learn about poverty.  In others words, through CCHD, we help people to help themselves and we educate ourselves on the Church's social teaching, which Pope Benedict calls the “the proclamation of the truth of Christ's love in society” (Caritas in Veritate #5).

We promote and support these community-controlled, self-help organizations mainly through grants.  The money comes from our spring combined collection in which we collect for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development along with Black and Indian Missions, Catholic Communication Campaign, Fund for Religious Retirement, and the Catholic University of America.  We send 75 percent of the CCHD collection to the national office and 25 percent of the collection stays here in the archdiocese. 

The local organizations that have received monies, either local or national, is an impressive list and includes the Pan African Committee, Repairers of the Breach, the Friendship Circle in Fond du Lac, the Vincent Family Resource Center, People First Wisconsin, Common Ground of southeastern Wisconsin, Racine Interfaith Coalition, and the list goes on and on.

From the very beginning some people have criticized CCHD arguing that the monies would be better used in direct aid to the poor or that community organizing is an inappropriate methodology for parishes.  Certainly, like all of our efforts, CCHD falls short of perfection and is by no means the Church’s only effort to help people emerge from poverty.  Even so, CCHD has helped in many different ways and works diligently to verify that no funds will be used to support any activity or project that does not conform to Catholic teaching.  For example, three out of the 243 groups nationally funded in the 2009-2010 cycle had their funding revoked when it came to light that they had taken political positions in opposition to Church teaching.     

None of this would be possible without the generous support of Catholics here in the archdiocese, the hard work of the members of all the different CCHD-supported groups and dedicated efforts of the national CCHD staff.  So let me join with Bishop Morin in his deepest appreciation for all these efforts.  Let us all join him in praying for those afflicted with poverty and redouble our efforts to make sure that every human being has the opportunity for integral human development. Thank you so much for your contributions to these collections. God be with you.

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend William Patrick Callahan

Archdiocesan Administrator
Archdiocese of Milwaukee

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