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“The poor are not a distraction for the Church, but our beloved brothers and sisters, for by their lives, their words and their wisdom, they put us in contact with the truth of the Gospel.” (Pope Leo XIV, Message for the Ninth Annual World Day of the Poor 2025)
November 15, 2025
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
For more than 34 million American families, there is a thin line between eviction and home, between hunger and health, between unemployment and work, between anxiety and stability. This line is the Poverty Line. Nationally, for a family of four, that line is $32,150 a year.
Since 1969, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has addressed poverty by attacking its causes and funding community projects that promote independence as a means of finding a permanent end to poverty. That’s why the CCHD theme is “Help Those on the Margins.” This collection is the primary source of funding for local and national anti-poverty grants and education programs.
As in recent years, seventy-five percent of the collection will stay here in our diocese. Each fall, I meet with our parish and community groups which receive local grants from the previous year’s collection. It is always inspiring to see how a few dozen small grants blossom into effective programs to support the dignity of people who find themselves most often on the margins. Given the increasing amount of food insecurity and working poor in our communities, the need has increased dramatically in the many food pantries and emergency assistance programs in our parishes and Catholic agencies which receive support from our local CCHD funds.
Please help the efforts of CCHD to break the cycle of poverty. We are “working on the margins” in Central Massachusetts and across America. Support the CCHD Collection on weekend of November 23 as a response to the Ninth Annual World Day of the Poor on Sunday, November 16 as called for by Pope Leo XIV. For more information about CCHD and the scope of poverty in America, please visit www.usccb.org/cchd.
With every prayerful best wish, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Robert J. McManus
Bishop of Worcester