Catholic Charities USA President, Rev. Larry Snyder, issued the following statement today on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan passage of immigration reform legislation.

“Catholic Charities USA applauds the work of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who chose compassion over partisanship this week when they joined together across party lines to approve legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country who are currently forced to live in the shadows.

“Catholic social teaching calls us to seek justice for newcomers, and our history as a faith community in the United States has been as an immigrant Church to an immigrant nation. As such, we strongly believe that any proposal considered must – at its core – build up our communities and support our families by including a path to citizenship, allowing families to remain intact, providing worker protections and addressing the plight of undocumented children.

“While the debates taking place in our nation’s capital are often divisive and polarizing, we are encouraged that important issues such as immigration reform are being used as opportunities for our elected leaders to fulfill their moral responsibility to the nation through bipartisan cooperation and compromise.”

To download the complete statement, please click here.

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) announced today that Father Greg Boyle, Founder and Executive Director of Homeboy Industries, will serve as one of the keynote speakers during CCUSA’s 2013 Annual Gathering in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1998, Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehab and re-entry program in the United States.

“Fr. Greg has spent his life devoted to creating opportunities for a segment of the community others may have given up on,” said Rev. Larry Snyder, President of CCUSA. “His commitment to helping underserved populations is an inspiring reflection of the ability of individuals to lift up those in need through a powerful dedication to faith.”

Boyle’s keynote will take place on Sunday, September 15.

Please click here for the full release. 

This Mother’s Day, Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) honors mothers for the foundational role they play in fostering the well-being of our nation’s children.  Catholic Charities agencies across the country provide important services to tens of thousands of mothers to support them in their fundamental work.

Pregnancy Services

• Agencies reported 97,445 clients received pregnancy services. This is up 19% relative to 2010.
•  Agencies served more than 11,500 pregnant teens.
• 8,882 pregnancy services clients received educational services.
•  3,025 pregnancy services clients participated in residential housing programs.

Housing

• 33 agencies offered temporary shelter for women with children.
• 43 agencies offered transitional housing for women with children.

Adoption

•  Agencies completed 3,397 adoptions in 2011.
• 2,145 adoptions from foster care
• 1,612 adoptions of special-needs children
• 529 inter-country adoptions

For more information, view our 2011 Annual Survey Data here.

Catholic Charities USA is pleased to announce Rev. George Kloster, a priest of the diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, as the winner of the 2013 Volunteer of the Year award.  Rev. Kloster, the pastor of St. William Church and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, serves on the advisory board for the Office of Economic Opportunity of Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Charlotte.

Rev. Kloster was chosen out of eight finalists to receive the award, which has been given out annually since 1998.

Please click here for the full release. 

Catholic Charities agencies report that imminent cuts to federal spending will force the already struggling agencies to serve even fewer clients, particularly those needing basic needs assistance and refugee services, according to Catholic Charities USA’s (CCUSA) latest quarterly snapshot survey.

“The proposed cuts won’t just impact the millions of people that come to our local agencies for help, but have the potential to negatively impact every community and neighborhood across the country by making it more difficult for neighbors and friends to make ends meet,” said CCUSA President Rev. Larry Snyder. “CCUSA believes that innovative reform of our nation’s safety net is long overdue, but until our system is fixed, cutting programs that support the most vulnerable among us is not the solution.”

Click here to download the full release.

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) presented CCUSA’s Social Innovation Awards  Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s Samaritan Place and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Evansville’s Neighbor to Neighbor program, during the Partners in Excellence Regional Gathering event that took place in Kentucky this week.

Two awards will be presented at each of the 20 regional gatherings taking place across the country between 2013 and 2014.  Recipients of the award each receive $5,000 (five thousand dollars) that must be reinvested in the award-winning program.

Click here to download the full release.

Catholic Charities USA President, Rev. Larry Snyder, issued a statement in response to the President’s FY 2014 Budget proposal.

“Catholic Charities USA and our network of local agencies across the country appreciate the opportunity that President Obama’s budget proposal for FY 2014 provides for a serious debate of our priorities as a nation. This conversation comes at a critical time, as the most vulnerable among us are already feeling a disproportionate impact of cuts to social service initiatives prompted by the sequester,” said Snyder. “We call on our leaders in the White House and Congress – on both sides of the aisle – to prioritize investments in initiatives that have proven to be efficient and effective, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent not on government bureaucracy, but on the people in communities across the country who continue to struggle.”

For the full statement, please continue reading here.

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) presented the first two CCUSA Social Innovation Awards to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque’s Jail and Prison Ministry, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Omaha’s Micro-Business Training and Development Program, during the Partners in Excellence Regional Gathering in Des Moines, Iowa on April 8^th.

The CCUSA Social Innovation Award recognizes successful socially innovative programs being managed by Catholic Charities agencies across the country. Award nominations were judged jointly by members of the Catholic Charities network and the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

Click here to download the full release.

On April 5, Catholic Charities USA President Fr. Larry Snyder was honored to deliver the opening prayer at the fourth annual White House Easter Prayer Breakfast.  At the event President Obama and Vice President Biden joined Christian leaders from across the country who gathered to “pray, reflect and celebrate” the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For full text of the delivered prayer, please visit Fr. Larry’s blog, Think and Act Anew, here.

Each year, Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) surveys diocesan Catholic Charities agencies to better understand the scope and scale of social services they provide to people in need.  In 2011, local agencies provided more than 10 million individuals and families-in-need with assistance in five key service areas; education, family economic security, health, housing and hunger. Snapshots highlighting the five key service areas are available here in addition to an overview of the full survey findings.