Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
Social Media and Search
One Body in Christ
Together, We Can Meet Urgent Needs
Around the world, dioceses, parishes and missions are struggling to serve the most vulnerable. Motivated by the love of Christ, they are eager to provide solutions, but they lack the funding necessary to meet those needs.
Your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach ensures our Church is able to support those critical missions of mercy, enabling them to be a source of relief, opportunity and hope. Working together, we can transform the poor and their communities materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ!
Meeting the Most Urgent Needs – With Your Support
Since 2001, your generosity has helped Cross Catholic Outreach bless children and families in more than 90 countries with nearly $5 billion in aid. Through our partnerships with local Catholic priests, sisters and lay leaders – and empowered by your generous support – we have been meeting the needs of impoverished communities and building the kingdom of God.
- 2024 -
Countries
Served
Projects
Supported
Expenses Used for Overhead Costs
Million
Total Aid
Your Generosity Transforms Lives
Finess
A determined mother of four yields success.
The Caritas Karonga’s agriculture program in Malawi allowed Finess to unlock her God-given potential to increase her crop yield and harvest a surplus.
Nguyen
A sturdy home is a dream come true.
Caritas Thanh Hóa helped make the dream of a home on solid ground a reality for Nguyen whose family lived in a river boat.
Maria
A widow blessed with a home business.
Maria is a widowed mother of several children in Mozambique. She ran a small tea business that, unfortunately, did not produce enough earnings. Maria could not afford the necessary medical treatments for one of her daughters, who has HIV. She was barely able to put food on the table for her children and felt trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair.
Cross Catholic Outreach, supported by generous gifts from U.S. Catholics like you, works with ministry partners like Association Cross Mozambique (ACM), a ministry founded to help impoverished women become self-sufficient through microenterprise.
ACM provided Maria with supplies to tend to her hens and for a home garden. The seeds, pesticides and tools she received helped Maria’s home garden flourish and allowed her to open a home grocery store. She sells fresh eggs, vegetables and fruit. Her children enjoy the produce from the garden, including sweet potatoes and corn. Thanks to Maria’s business, she can keep her children well-fed and provide medical care for her daughter.
Maria is grateful for all the blessings you showered on her family. Thank you for blessing her family — and many others!
Your gift can transform the lives of those with the most urgent needs.
Our President’s Message
“Because we love God, that allows us to love others. And by providing aid alongside our partners, we provide love and hope.” Michele Sagarino
Michele’s heart for service and deep Catholic faith inspires her to connect U.S. Catholics with ministries serving the world’s most marginalized people. She’s served in executive leadership at Cross Catholic Outreach for 20 years, beginning as vice president of development and transitioning to president in 2022, with the full support of every U.S. Catholic bishop on our esteemed board of directors.
Families struggling with hunger, thirst and poverty need a strong Church to be there for them when it counts. Today, you can ensure our Church remains a source of relief, support and hope when impoverished families have the most urgent needs through life-changing programs like these:
Food
Ship prepackaged meals around the world and help Catholic ministries buy food locally.
Water & Health
Drill wells and protect families from dangerous illnesses that trap them in desperation.
Housing
Build safe, sturdy homes for families living in unsafe and unsanitary dwellings.
Education
Empower young minds with the educational and spiritual foundation to achieve goals.
Vulnerable Children
Give girls and boys a safe, healthy start and protect them from human trafficking.
Disaster Relief
Rush critical supplies, such as food, water and blankets after natural and manmade disasters.
Microenterprise
Help families launch small businesses so they can break the cycle of poverty.
Agriculture
Improve nutrition and increase families’ income with programs to grow crops and raise animals.
Mobilizing the Global Catholic Church
Meeting Urgent Needs Through Trusted Partnerships
Our vision of “all Catholics around the world united in overcoming material and spiritual poverty” is more than just a noble slogan. We put those words into action by forming partnerships with local Catholic priests, sisters and lay leaders serving in impoverished and blighted communities.
By relying on the expertise of local ministries rather than imposing our own programs on their ministry teams, we are able to rapidly respond to the most urgent needs in ways that have a real, lasting impact. These in-country partners walk among the poor, understand their hardships and dreams, empathize with their suffering, nurture their spiritual lives, and often know better than anyone else how to help them rise out of poverty.
Cross Catholic Outreach is committed to excellence in stewardship and pledges to be fully accountable regarding how we use the funds you entrust to our ministry. We supply meaningful help where it is needed most, channeling urgent aid and cash grants through local Catholic leaders who are trusted in their communities.
With your help, Cross Catholic Outreach will have the flexibility to respond where we are most needed, serving with humility, fervor and love as we advance Catholic evangelization.
Catholic Ministry Partners Your Gift Can Support
A mobile doctor who makes healthcare accessible.
Dr. Enok Chione’s mobile medical clinics help bring healthcare to northern Malawi where the nearest health clinic is miles away and difficult to reach on foot.
A bishop who rejoices in Catholic transformation.
Bishop Pablo Vizcaíno Prado is the guiding force behind the social and spiritual outreaches in the Diocese of Suchitepéquez in Guatemala, increasing the number of parishes in the diocese from 14 to 25.
A priest opening doors to Christ and secure homes.
Working through Caritas Thanh Hóa, Vietnam, Father Nguyen is opening hearts to Christ, building secure housing for poor families and providing training and income-generating opportunities.
A Catholic education is a blessing for children like Manise in Haiti and other countries.
Be Christ’s Hands and Feet to the Poor
Today, you can be Christ’s hands and feet by serving families who are crying out for relief and a brighter future. Your support of Cross Catholic Outreach and its network of Church partners around the globe will enable you to be God’s instrument of mercy in answering those prayers for help.
Please, give generously so the priests, religious sisters and lay missionaries who work with our ministry partners can further their work in ways that will end suffering, open doors of opportunity and restore hope.
Those faithful servants of God have committed their lives to serving the poor in the most forgotten corners of the most forsaken lands. Your support will empower them to respond quickly to urgent needs and bring about the long-term transformation of communities that have been trapped in poverty for generations.
As we stand together for the good of all, we truly become one body in Christ!
Download the Proposal
Students raise their colorful cups to collect water at a borehole.
Donations from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2026, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.