The head of Catholic Relief Services is asking his brother bishops a favor: “Brag about us a little bit.”

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who chairs the Baltimore-based relief agency, spoke on Monday to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting this week at the Mariott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore. Dolan said Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. bishops, remains little known even among Catholics:

Even though CRS is recognized as a leader among humanitarian agencies for its professionalism, innovation and efficiency, the fact is that many of your parishioners have not heard of us.

I recently heard a troubling fact. CRS conducted a survey, using an independent polling agency, and asked Catholics to name a humanitarian agency that works overseas. And do you know how many mentioned CRS? Only 22 percent. And that was a huge improvement from the previous year, when only 11 percent named CRS. We have a lot of work to do! We do not spend a lot of money on advertising, as do other similar relief agencies, as less than 5% of our budget goes for overhead.

That’s why I’d like to ask a favor of all of you, my brother bishops. Because CRS is your agency, brag about us a little bit. Perhaps you could write an occasional column in your diocesan newspapers about the work of CRS. Perhaps you could encourage your parishes to get involved in Operation Rice Bowl, the CRS Lenten program. Or maybe you could encourage you priests to mention CRS from time to time in their homilies. Or better yet, they could get involved in our Global Fellows program – we send priests, deacons and seminarians overseas to see the work of CRS first hand, and they come back as some of our best ambassadors.

Dolan concluded with an anecdote that he said illustrated how CRS works, and the impact it has.

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A multi-year study hosted by the University of Maryland and including several area groups concludes that faith-based organizations can better weather an economic downturn by building stronger ties with the ministries the congregations that support them.

From a release issued on Thursday:

Particularly during an economic downturn, faith-based organizations tied only to one or two congregations, especially if those were not thriving congregations, had the most trouble raising resources and some shut down. While single-congregation support of a program might be considered more authentic, faith-based organizations supported by a wider umbrella or an interfaith base fared better.

“We compared everything from small food pantries directly connected to a congregation to national hospital systems and their local affiliated hospitals,” said Maryland Associate Professor Jo Anne Schneider, who led the project. “Congregation-focused models work well for mainline Protestants, Quakers and African American churches, but only if several congregations provide support or the sponsoring congregation is sufficiently active with enough resources to support the nonprofit. Jewish and Catholic systems rely on their communities as a whole with the Jewish Federation, Archdiocese, or Order providing centralized support. Some thriving evangelical organizations rely on networks with no formal connections to congregations.”

Other key findings of the report, entitled “Faith and Organization Project: Maintaining Vital Between Faith Communities and their Organizations:”

* A new breed of evangelical organizations has emerged with a different understanding about how to develop an organization to do a specific mission that is firmly based in a particular set of beliefs but that focuses on personal relationships to provide services rather than sharing their faith as a means to improve the lives of those served.

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From former Sun religion writer John Rivera, now at Catholic Relief Services, comes this photograph of Our Lady of Perpetual Help chapel in Marikina, Philippines. Note the pew lodged in the rafters during tropical storm Ketsana over the weekend.

Laura Sheahen, the Baltimore-based organization's regional information director for Asia and the Pacific rim, writes:

Pew, that was close

Flood survivors receive aid at a chapel in Marikina, Philippines. When tropical storm Ketsana hit the island, massive flooding drove thousands from their homes. Father Javier Mexicano, shown here standing, was caught in his small parish house during the storm. He and another priest broke through the roof, waited there for the waters to settle, and eventually swam to safety.

A pew is lodged in the rafters of the chapel, where it floated during the flood.

Read Sheahen's blog post on the storm and its aftermath at the CRS Voices blog.

Photo by Laura Sheahen/Catholic Relief Services

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Last month in Kentucky, an Assemblies of God congregation drew international attention with its "open carry celebration," in which the pastor invited members of to come to bring their guns to church, that they might "celebrate our rights as Americans."

“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” the Rev. Ken Pagano told The New York Times.

Next month in Baltimore, a Catholic church will ask parishioners to bring weapons to church -- for a very different purpose. Responding to increased gun violence in the city, organizers say, St. Gregory the Great is sponsoring its seventh "Gun Turn-In Day" on Sept. 12.

Since the parish began its effort to get guns off the streets, organizers say, more than 100 have been turned in.

“The police have verified that in the past, some of these weapons that have been turned in have been very lethal,” Monsignor Damien G. Nalepa said in a statement. “We appeal to all the citizens of our city to help stop the violence and turn in guns.”

Co-sponsored by the Catholic Review, the event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the church at 1542 N. Gilmor St. Organizers are offering $100 for each workable automatic or semi-automatic handgun or assault rifle, and $50 for any other workable gun turned in.

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Local Muslims are planning to fulfill their Ramadan obligation to help the needy on Saturday by giving a hot meal, clothing, health screening, contacts for job training and other assistance to more than 1,000 homeless people in Baltimore.

Organized in 19 cities nationwide by Islamic Relief, the annual Day of Dignity will be hosted locally by Masjid Ul Haqq at 514 Islamic Way. Since coming to Baltimore in 2005, organizers say, the effort has served nearly 3,500 people.

Initiated in Los Angeles, the event is now held annually in New York, Washington, Philadelphia,Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and other cities.

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While philanthropies everywhere struggle to pry dollars loose from communities reeling from the recession, Baltimore's Jewish federation is celebrating what in these times qualifies as an outstanding result: simply raising as much money as it did the year before.

The annual campaign of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore hit the mark Tuesday, the last day of the fiscal year, organization officials said. The $30.8 million they raised means they will be able to fund all of the Associated's local educational, cultural and assistance programs at the same levels this year as last.

"What's at play here is provision of service," Associated President Marc B. Terrill said Tuesday. "We have to be the mouthpiece for the people that can't speak for themselves. So we went in with an attitude essentially that failure is not an option."

His organization's feat comes in a bleak environment for philanthropy both locally and nationwide. U.S. charitable giving fell 2 percent in 2008, according to a report released last month by the Giving USA Foundation. More than 80 percent of the nonprofit organizations surveyed by the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins University early this year reported experiencing some level of fiscal stress, and close to 40 percent described the stress as "severe" or "very severe."

Among 157 Jewish federations in the United States and Canada, the pace of giving is off 13 percent this year, according to a spokesman for United Jewish Communities/Jewish Federations of North America. As a result, spokesman Joe Berkowfsky said, some federations are extending their annual campaigns beyond the June 30 close of the fiscal year.

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

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Federal terrorism finance laws are interfering with the ability of American Muslims to give to charity as required by their faith, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Zakat, or alms giving, is one of the five pillars of Islam. But the ACLU says terrorism finance laws that were expanded after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to stop the flow of U.S. dollars to violent groups have made American Muslims afraid to give to any organization, lest it come under government suspicion and those who support it face criminal prosecution.

“Widespread intimidation of Muslim donors and the arbitrary blacklisting of charitable organizations trample on Muslims’ free exercise of religion through charitable giving and tarnish America’s reputation as a beacon of religious freedom,” said Jennifer Turner, who wrote the 164-page report, entitled “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity.”

"Post-9/11 policies have created a climate of fear that prevents Muslims from practicing their religion, and unless the Obama administration takes action, this legacy of the Bush administration will persist."

The government has closed seven Muslim charities since Sept. 11, 2001, and two others have shut down after government raids on their offices, according to the Associated Press. In Dallas last month, a federal judge sentenced five members of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to prison after they were convicted of funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The defendants said they only gave much-needed aid to a volatile region.

Two other high-profile terrorism-financing trials, in Chicago and Florida, ended without convictions on the major counts.

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Worshippers at a Severn church on Sunday will walk in the footsteps of the poor as part of a national charity drive intended to provide shoes for the needy.

Grace Pointe Community Church of the Nazarene, which worships in the Kerr Center for the Arts on the upper campus of Annapolis Area Christian School, is one of thousands of congregations across the country participating in “Barefoot Sunday,” according to event organizers.

Church members will be asked to leave the shoes on the altar and walk out of services barefoot. The footwear will be collected by Soles4Souls Inc., which provides new and gently worn shoes to victims of disasters and those living in extreme poverty.

The Nashville-based outfit says it has distributed 4.3 million pairs of shoes in more than 125 countries including the United States.

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A trio of Lutheran pastors from West Virginia will be wheeling their bamboo bicycle-built-for-three into Baltimore next week to talk about hunger here and around the world.

Baltimore is one of 65 cities that the Revs. Reinold “Ron” Schlak Jr., Frederick A. “Fred” Soltow Jr. and David A. Twedt are planning to visit during their 100-day, 13,000-mile Tour de Revs. The riders are hoping to raise $5 million for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

“We will be encouraging people to make giving to the [appeal] a regular part of their stewardship, not just contributing when a special offering is collected,” Twedt said in a release. “Beyond that, I would hope and expect that this church will continue to increase its support of those who, through no fault of their own, can not support themselves. Jesus is saying that to me in Matthew 25.”

Matthew 25:40 includes the injunction: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.”

Schlak, Soltow and Twedt, who describe their goals as “revelation, revolution and revenue,” will enter Baltimore on Monday via the Gwynns Falls Bike Trail. They are to be received at the Lutheran Center by Bishop H. Gerard Knoche, the Rev. John Nunes of Lutheran World Relief, Ralston Deffenbaugh of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Jill Schumann from Lutheran Services in America.

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien and the board of trustees of Catholic Charities of Baltimore have tapped William J. McCarthy Jr. to lead the organization on the retirement of longtime Executive Director Harold A. Smith.

“The combination of Bill McCarthy’s executive experience in the Baltimore area, as well as his deep personal commitment to the church’s mission of serving the neediest among us, made him an ideal choice,” O’Brien said in a statement.

A parishioner of the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, McCarthy is president of SunTrust Bank, Greater Baltimore, and executive vice president for wealth and investment management of SunTrust Bank Mid-Atlantic.

“I cannot imagine a more powerful calling to public service than leading Catholic Charities,” he said.

McCarthy takes over on Aug. 1. Smith, who has been executive director for 33 years, will remain on staff through the end of the year to assist in the transition.

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Categories: Catholicism, Charity