WASHINGTON— The annual Peter’s Pence Collection will be taken in many dioceses across the United States the weekend of June 29-30. Funds from this collection support Pope Francis’ charitable outreach to the suffering and marginalized around the world. The proceeds benefit people on the margins of society, including victims of war, oppression, and natural disasters.
“Pope Francis continues an ancient tradition of the Church of distributing the material support of disciples to those most in need. When we support the Peter’s Pence Collection, we, as members of the Catholic Church, unite ourselves to the concerns of the Holy Father,” said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne, chairman of the USCCB Committee on National Collections. “I am grateful to the faithful of the United States for their steadfast support and generosity.”
For example, in the Dioceses of Embeder, Harar, and Mek in Ethiopia, people rely exclusively on subsistence farming and nomadic herding. The El Niño weather phenomenon worsened drought conditions in these regions, and the people fear a new famine that could be far worse than the 1984 famine that led to more than a million deaths in Ethiopia. Through the Peter’s Pence Collection, the Holy Father has helped bring aid to the affected villages by funding food and medicines that give the Ethiopian people a measure of relief and hope.
More information about the collection can be found at www.usccb.org/ppc.
