October 20, 2020
World Mission Sunday and Missionary Cooperation Sunday is This Week!
We are called through our Baptism to be part of the Church’s missionary efforts, through prayer, self-sacrifice, and support of the Mission Church through material aid. This year, Pope Francis asks us to respond to that call, saying, “Here I Am, Send Me!” To “send” ourselves, we can:
- Pray for the Church’s worldwide missionary work
- Offer financial help and charity through the second collection for our parish missionary group (COAR) and the World Mission Sunday collection of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
This week, we respond, “Here I Am, Send Me,” to our baptismal call to mission, and we offer, at the Eucharistic celebration, our prayers and our generous financial support to continue the mission of Jesus through a double appeal. The World Mission Sunday appeal is for the universal church and Missionary Cooperation Plan appeal supports the missionary group assigned this year to our parish. As always, your prayers are your most treasured gift to the Missions. Your prayers and financial help, offered today, support mission priests, religious Sisters and Brothers, and lay catechists who are Christ’s witnesses to a world so in need of His healing, love, and peace.
This year’s Mission co-op organization is COAR. Here’s some information about them:
This year we are asked to support a mission of the Church: “COAR Peace Mission.” COAR (CO’-ar), C-O-A-R, stands for the “Community of St. Oscar A. Romero”, located in El Salvador in Central America. COAR is a school for 1,000 impoverished children, pre-kindergarten – 12th grade. COAR is a home for 30-50 children in foster care. COAR has a clinic, vocational training, and other resources for the entire impoverished community.
COAR’s story begins in 1964, when the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, took El Salvador as its mission territory. In the late 1970’s, as El Salvador’s civil war began, San Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Romero asked the Cleveland missionaries to work with refugees. Those missionaries saw orphaned children in the camps who were sick, hungry, and traumatized. So, they brought them back to their parish for extra care. They named the orphanage after St. Oscar Romero and COAR was born. You can learn more at COAR’s website: coarpeacemission.org.
We would ask you to discern prayerfully how your generosity can help those in need. Donations may be dropped in the basket at weekend Masses (please label your envelope “Missionary appeal”) or mailed to the parish office at 245 Azalea Dr, Monroeville PA 15146.
Thank you for your generosity to our annual missions appeal!