Poverty Awareness Month

 For Catholics, January is Poverty Awareness Month. It is a time when the U.S. Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and the Catholic community in the United States take up Pope Francis' challenge to live in solidarity with the poor.

 

This year, Catholics are called to respond to issues such as the dignity and rights of workers,  human trafficking, and the adverse effects of climate change on poor communities. 

 

Among the many resources that are available are a daily calendar and longer daily reflections.

 

People can also sign up for a newsletter here.

National Migration Week 2021 has moved

Readers of this blog are accustomed to seeing a post regarding National Migration Week about this time every year. Now, however, things have changed.

For nearly forty years, National Migration Week has followed the Epiphany, which we just celebrated on Sunday. One of the primary reasons was due to the timing of the Pope’s Migration Day message, which was celebrated in mid-January. However, Pope Francis has announced that that the World Day of Migrants and Refugees will now be celebrated on the last Sunday of September. To maintain the custom of aligning National Migration Week with the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the Catholic Bishops of the United States decided to move National Migration Week to the last week in September.

We will mark the next National Migration Week from September 20 to 26, with the Vatican’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees taking place on Sunday, September 26. Resources will be made available later this Spring.