Story - March 21, 2019 - With the spate of hurricanes that hit the U.S. mainland and its territories in the fall of 2017, disaster relief was urgent and widespread. Many people focused their efforts in their local communities, and rightly so. Residents, charitable organizations like Catholic Charities, and government offices – already embedded in neighborhoods – became good Samaritans to…

Story - September 8, 2020 - A week ago, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio, Inc. received a request from Bishop David L. Toups of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, asking for our help in providing bottled water and shelf-stable food to the people affected by Hurricane Laura. We immediately sent a request by newsletter and social media to our community…

Prayer & Reflection - December 25, 2021 - CCUSA’s Daily Advent Reflections: Christmas Day For many of us, the cards have been sent and received, the gifts wrapped and now opened, the meal around the table perhaps still anticipated. We have sung the carols of rejoicing in our parishes. But what does this confounding mystery of incarnational love mean for us, going forward…

Story - August 12, 2015 - Catholic Charities in Chicago started Crisp! Mobile Produce, an innovative social enterprise, to address the issue of food deserts in underserved areas of the city while generating revenue to fund other Catholic Charities food and nutrition programs. Launched in 2013 with a grant from the USDA Farmers Market Promotion program, Crisp! is a mobile grocery…

Story - July 16, 2021 - After much anticipation, President Biden’s Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions raised the admissions ceiling from 15,000 to 62,500 on May 3, 2021, for the fiscal year 2021. Although the numbers have not been released for fiscal year 2022, President Biden has committed his support to welcome families who have been forced to leave their…

Story - January 30, 2018 - After Hurricane Maria devastated thousands in Puerto Rico in September, Catholic Charities began to see individuals and families turning to us for help. They had left Puerto Rico in the midst of great devastation and resettled in Chicago. Working with the City of Chicago, Catholic Charities and other social service agencies opened a multi-agency resource…

Story - June 10, 2020 - For years, some parishes in the Chicago Archdiocese have maintained gardens whose produce was donated to local food pantries. With the rise in food insecurity during COVID-19 sending more people to food pantries than before, those ministries have taken on a new importance. Volunteers at the Jubilee Garden of St. Francis de Sales Parish in…

Story - September 15, 2015 - The Adelanto Federal Immigration Detention Facility, located 90 miles east of Los Angeles, houses roughly 1,300 unauthorized immigrant men awaiting deportation proceedings. If they can’t find or afford an attorney, they will face the judge on their own, which almost always results in deportation. The Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, a program of Catholic Charities of…

Story - December 11, 2018 - Fatuma* is a lawful permanent U.S. resident from Somalia. Days before she gave birth to her second daughter in Somalia, Fatuma’s husband and father were murdered by a group of armed men. Eventually, the same men began threatening Fatuma. In 2010, they forced Fatuma to flee for her life. She went to a refugee camp…

Prayer & Reflection - December 9, 2023 - If there’s anything I’ve learned at Catholic Charities, it’s that everything is possible. In the Gospel today, Jesus surveys the needs of his people — they are sick, troubled and abandoned, and he tells his friends to go and serve. Jesus sends his disciples — he sends us — into the darkest of places. Into…

Publication - March 4, 2023

Story - April 7, 2021 - For more than 100 years, the Catholic Charities ministry in the United States has provided essential services to immigrants and newcomers. The reason transcends particular time periods, exigencies or politics.  Catholic Charities affirms the inherent, God-given dignity of immigrants and refugees, as well as every human person, and works to honor that dignity by helping…