Annual fundraiser supports CCODP
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic
The shepherd of Vancouver is asking the people in the pews to help the needy this Lent.
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, has issued a letter asking the faithful to reach into their pockets and be generous during this year’s Share Lent campaign.
“Pope Francis has invited us during the Jubilee Year of Mercy to be ‘merciful like the Father’ and to go out to our neighbour in need,” he wrote in a letter dated March 6.
“We are one human family, and if one member suffers, all suffer together. Let us be generous in our Share Lent donations, so that we can support our brothers and sisters who are striving to help themselves.”
Share Lent is a fundraising campaign by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. The CCODP has partners in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, and delivers emergency relief after wars and natural disasters and supports human rights in those areas.
This year’s campaign is themed “Create a Climate of Change.” Archbishop Miller said it is connected to Pope Francis’s plea for better care for the planet and the poor in his encyclical Laudato Si’.
“The Holy Father has called all of us to act as good stewards of the earth, the common home which God has entrusted to our care,” the archbishop wrote.
“He invites us to live simply so as to help our suffering brothers and sisters in the global south, who bear a disproportionate burden of poverty.”
CCODP launches Share Lent, which it calls its main fundraising activity, annually on Ash Wednesday, the start of a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for Catholics.
A special collection for this cause will be held in parishes on the Fifth Sunday of Lent.
