See them as Christ sees us

“A Church without charity does not exist.” These are the words spoken by Pope Francis in 2013 to leaders of Caritas, the network of Catholic charitable institutions from around the world.

 Although each nation, indeed each diocese, organizes itself differently, the Catholic Church in the United States has organized our institutional support to charity through Catholic Relief Services for our service outside the territory of the United States, and through Catholic Charities agencies like our own for service within the United States. 

Each diocese has a structure to serve its own community needs. In some dioceses, that Catholic Charities consists of a small departmental staff within the chancery; in other, larger dioceses you may have a multi-level corporate structure with hundreds, perhaps thousands of staff.

In our archdiocese, we have Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, with service locations in Ardmore, Clinton, Enid, Guymon, Lawton, Midwest City, Norman and Oklahoma City, to serve others through 14 service programs ranging from crisis pregnancy and adoption services, senior housing, services to refugee arrivals, Saint Joseph’s counseling, immigration legal services, homeless services, disaster recovery and much more.

Think again about those words of Pope Francis, “A Church without charity does not exist.” Our faith in Jesus Christ, our awareness of His many blessings in our lives, our acknowledgment that our brothers and sisters in Christ also bear His image and likeness, compel us to respond when we see others suffering, or hurt or in need.

Our Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is truly world-class in its services, and I’m particularly proud that your support, the generous support of thousands of parishioners who respond to this Catholic Charities Annual Appeal, constitute its single largest revenue source year after year.

Because of your generosity, more than three women (or women with children) go from homelessness to housing each week – that’s an astonishing impact! Our agency’s director of immigration legal services not only serves our own archdiocesan needs (which includes critical paperwork for the foreign-born priests and religious serving in the archdiocese), she also was able to travel to Houston to assist with family reunification screening.

Our Catholic Charities’ disaster response is so well-respected that one of our staff was flown to American Samoa (U.S. territory) in the Pacific Ocean to share our policies and procedures to help them recover from a typhoon last season. Our Executive Director Patrick Raglow serves on the board of trustees for Catholic Charities USA. For a relatively small agency in a relatively small archdiocese, we truly have an impact greater than our size.
 

We can be justly proud of these indicators of our effectiveness. But, the best reason for us to join in supporting Catholic Charities through this annual appeal is to connect our lives, our blessings, with others in need.
 

I invite you to read, deeply and with an open heart, the many stories in these pages. I pray that you experience their journey, encounter their lives, even if just a little bit. Your giving to this annual appeal enables you to share in their sorrows and become an instrument of their success.

Each of us has a responsibility to those living on the margins who are suffering or hurting. Your generous gift, large or small, to Catholic Charities is a powerful response to their cry for help. If you have given before, thank you for your past and future support. If you’ve never given before, will you please join in this great work?

God will surely bless your compassion. Thank you.