WASHINGTON – “Consecrated men and women are a witness to the hope of a life lived in Christ that is awaited to be fully received in Heaven,” said Archbishop-designate Ronald A. Hicks, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. The committee assists bishops in promoting, supporting, and educating about the Church’s pastoral needs and concerns for the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life, and addresses issues concerning the life and ministry of bishops. Instituted by Saint John Paul II in 1997, the Catholic Church observes the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on February 2 each year. Dioceses, parishes, and schools take the opportunity to recognize, celebrate, and pray for those in consecrated life and those discerning this state of life. 

“By responding to the vocational call such as consecrated virginity, religious life, and members of secular institutes and societies of Apostolic life, consecrated men and women reveal God’s invitation to love him with one’s whole life even now while on Earth as it will be in Heaven. Living out this love can start before one enters into consecrated life through active participation in the Mass, such as being an altar server or lector, or parish ministry, and teaching the faith to God’s people,” said Archbishop-designate Hicks.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, in preparation for this celebration, commissions a study each year on newly professed men and women religious through the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. The full CARA report and profiles of the Profession Class of 2025 may be found here.   

Resources on the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life are available on the USCCB’s website World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.

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WASHINGTON - On Ash Wednesday, February 18, Catholics in dioceses across the United States are invited to give to the annual Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

This collection, which is in its 35th year, continues its mission of helping churches in nearly 30 countries recover from militantly atheist communist rule, including ministry and relief efforts related to the war against Ukraine.

Bishop Gerald L. Vincke of the Diocese of Salina, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, witnessed the collection’s work in Ukraine last March. “I visited a shelter for families whose homes were destroyed and an orphanage for children whose parents were killed. Veterans I met with expressed their gratitude for therapy they have been able to receive for their post-traumatic stress,” he said.

“An elderly man who had survived a Siberian gulag told me, ‘What gives me hope is that, in the end, evil does not win.’ He is right – but that requires all of us to follow Christ’s call to build the kingdom of God. Pope John Paul II knew that in 1990 when he urged Catholics in the United States to join the great rebuilding effort in lands newly liberated from communist oppression – lands from which many of our families had immigrated,” continued Bishop Vincke.

The Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe was the U.S. bishops’ response to that call. Many dioceses take up this annual collection on Ash Wednesday, though some dioceses have different dates. The online giving site iGiveCatholic also accepts funds for the program.

In 2024, gifts to the collection funded 547 grants totaling more than $9.5 million. Examples of how donations are used include:

• In Kokshetau, Kazakhstan, sisters of the Community of the Beatitudes expanded their mission of evangelization by establishing a day center for preschool children with Down syndrome and their families.
• In the Slovak Republic, a multi-faceted outreach to vulnerable pregnant women provides material assistance, counseling, training in prevention of abuse, and “Evenings of Mercy” a gathering featuring Mass, confessions, and healing prayers.
• One of the many projects in Ukraine trains lay leaders in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Lutsk to develop new skills in pastoral and social ministry so they can help bring hope and comfort to people who have lost everything.
• A thousand-year-old Benedictine monastery in Hungary is helping clergy and laity discover the teachings of Vatican II on topics ranging from liturgy to interfaith relations.
• In Bulgaria, a village church has been able to engage in digital media evangelization and now offers a post-abortion healing ministry. They were also able to send young pilgrims to the Jubilee in Rome and financed English-immersion studies for a priest in order to reach non-Bulgarians.

“For 35 years, your contributions to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe have made a profound difference. You have rebuilt cathedrals, renewed hope, healed the suffering and brought joy where there had been despair,” Bishop Vincke said. “As these churches continue to heal from old wounds and suffer new ones, it is my hope that you give generously and become part of our ongoing and loving response.”

Additional information on grants and impact is at www.usccb.org/ccee.

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