Supporting the Church’s works of social justice, evangelization, catechesis, and national and local institutional development--domestically and around the world--through the generosity of parishioners to annual national appeals.
On Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2026, the annual collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe will be taken in many dioceses across the United States. By participating in this collection, you can help carry on a 35-year legacy of restoration and healing.
During much of the 20th century, communist governments in more than 25 countries of Central and Eastern Europe persecuted Catholics and nearly silenced the Church’s witness. Church properties were seized. Seminaries and convents were closed. Clergy, religious sisters and brothers, and Catholic laity faced imprisonment or death for their faith.
After the collapse of the communist system in the late 1980s, the bishops of the United States established the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991 to help restore the Church by supporting evangelization, seminary education, family ministries, and construction projects to restore church structures damaged by years of neglect.
Thirty-five years later, this work continues to heal the wounds of history by supporting parish ministries, diocesan evangelization efforts, and the liturgical and cultural renewal programs of religious communities like the Benedictine monks of Pannonhalma Archabbey, Hungary, depicted in this year’s campaign image above. It also continues in the pastoral and humanitarian efforts to bring mercy and comfort to the wounded, grieving, and displaced victims of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Please join in by giving at Mass or through your parish’s online giving/e-offertory platform. #iGiveCatholic also accepts funds for the collection.
"Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." Luke 6:38
Each parish is part of the Church Universal; it is the Catholic Church in a particular place. The bishops of the United States created the national collections so that, by combining resources, we can more effectively carry out our mission as Catholics. Each of these important collections is worthy of your support. Each collection represents our community of faith at work in the world, saving souls and improving lives.
The bishops encourage us to view the national collections in the light of stewardship and of sharing. God has given us our light and our prosperity, all we need and more. It is right and just that we give something back through these collections, helping people in our own country and around the world to live better and to grow in the love of Jesus.
One Church. One Mission.
Archbishop Paul J. Etienne, Archdiocese of Seattle
Los videos están subtitulados en español. Haga clic en la configuración de la "rueda" en la esquina inferior derecha. Verá la elección de subtítulos, elija Spanish (Latin America).
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