For Immediate Release CONTACT: Rev. James M. McCann, SJ
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
PHONE: 202-541-3400

“LOVE IS THE ONLY LIGHT”

COLLECTION FOR THE CHURCH IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

WASHINGTON—The 2008 Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe offers an opportunity to
participate in a spiritual revival unlike any other. With a love that brings radiant light, Catholics in the United States
help, through the Collection, to build parishes in many distant places, such as Magadan, Russia, a part of the world
where prisoners of the Stalinist labor camps once had to fashion rosaries from bits of their bread ration. Generous
donations from Catholics in the United States support seminaries, social service programs, youth ministry, pastoral
centers, church construction and renovation, and the spreading of the Gospel message through the mass media. New
Catholic schools in war-torn areas such as Kosovo are beginning to ensure a lasting peace.
“Love is the only light.” The theme for the 2008 Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe draws on
the Holy Father’s first encyclical. Pope Benedict XVI writes, “Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that
can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” (God Is Love
[Deus Caritas Est], no. 39).
This year, the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe will be conducted on Ash Wednesday or on the
First Sunday of Lent in most Catholic parishes across the country. The suggested national date is Ash Wednesday,
February 6, 2008.
Shortly after the fall of Communism, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Collection for
the Church in Central and Eastern Europe as the Church tried to regain its footing in countries where it had been driven
underground for decades. Those who had sought to destroy the Church under Communist rule left a terrible trail of
devastation. Priests, bishops, and lay leaders were imprisoned. Books, religious education materials, and other vehicles
of evangelization all but disappeared. Convents, schools, seminaries, and other properties were often left in shambles or
were converted to warehouses, barracks, or even skating rinks.
As a result of this severe repression, the bishops of the region today face the formidable tasks of restoring church
structures and, more importantly, of rebuilding the spiritual centers of their communities. Now more than ever, the
ecclesial needs of Catholics in Central and Eastern Europe must be tenderly cared for.
The Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe raises funds to address the spiritual reconstruction of this
traumatized region—training seminarians and lay leaders, reaching out to young people, reviving Catholic charities, and
renewing programs of catechesis and communication.
Since 1991, the Collection has provided more than $100 million to Catholics in post-Communist Russia and Central
and Eastern Europe. These funds have supported more than 3,500 Church projects in more than 25 countries: Albania,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia,
Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The needs are great. Many of these countries continue to experience serious economic problems. Rampant poverty
hinders church rebuilding and catechetical efforts. While the people hunger for spiritual sustenance, educational
materials are in short supply, seminaries and convents are desperately short of funds to train eager young men and
women, and schools are waiting to be built and launched.
The story of the Church in Central and Eastern Europe is a story of vitality and growth, a story of steadfastness and hope.
Where darkness once seemed to reign, the light of love has broken through.

FOR FASCINATING STORIES ABOUT THE CHURCH IN EASTERN EUROPE AND FOR MORE INFORMATION,
PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE: www.aidtoeasterneurope.org.