Ash Wednesday Collection for Church in Central and Eastern Europe Rebuilds Hope in Countries Affected by War and Persecution

WASHINGTON – “Since 1990 the bishops of the United States have worked closely with Church leaders in nations where Catholics were persecuted, imprisoned or worse because they refused to abandon their faith,” said Bishop Gerald L. Vincke, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

The bishops founded the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe 35 years ago after St. John Paul II appealed for help to rebuild the Church there. Today, as bombs continue to fall in Ukraine, the Catholic bishops of the United States are asking parishioners to give generously to a collection that aids both Ukrainian war victims and ministry in nearly 30 countries where the Church was persecuted under seven decades of communist rule.

“As the war against Ukraine makes this collection ever more urgent, my prayer is that all Catholics will give generously,” said Bishop Gerald L. Vincke, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

“Since 1990, the bishops of the United States have worked closely with Church leaders in nations where Catholics were persecuted, imprisoned or worse because they refused to abandon their faith. Those relationships allow us to deliver pastoral and humanitarian aid quickly and effectively.”

Many dioceses will take the collection in their parishes on Ash Wednesday, March 5. The website #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts funds for this collection.

In 2023, the collection funded 329 projects totaling more than $8.75 million. A few examples include:

• Multiple projects related to the war against Ukraine.
  • The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv transformed its retreat center into a shelter for 800 displaced persons, including nearly 300 children.
  • A gathering for leaders of Ukrainian Greek Catholic religious orders, who have turned virtually all convents and monasteries into shelters for war victims and needed to explore how to pursue these new ministries while remaining faithful to their community’s original vocation.
  • A welcoming ministry of the only Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish in Lublin, Poland, helping Ukrainian refugees cope with trauma and begin new lives.
  • An annual summer program of the Catholic University of Croatia, “Practicing Resilience-Preparing for Recovery,” bringing together students from Ukraine and across Central and Eastern Europe to study ways of rebuilding a just society and preventing cycles of vengeance when the war ends.
• Renovating the decrepit parish house of the Catholic cathedral in Belgrade, Serbia, with  energy-efficient utilities and spaces for pastoral ministry and evangelization.
• Supporting an order of missionary religious sisters in Tajikistan, which is 98% Muslim and desperately poor, to provide a quality education to children and teenage students in a small Catholic community that has begun to produce Tajik vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

“That is the kind of ministry-against-all-odds that we read about in the Book of Acts. Just as the first apostles sought support to reach people who had never heard the Gospel, the U.S. bishops are asking you to support ministry in places where the Catholic faith is little known and the Church has strong faith but few material resources,” Bishop Vincke said.

For more information on this collection please visit: https://www.usccb.org/committees/church-central-eastern-europe

###