In a few weeks, I will celebrate my last Christmas as an employee of Catholic Relief Services. As you know, I am retiring as president on December 31 and am handing over the post to Carolyn Y. Woo. Starting next month, Carolyn will be writing these letters to you.

Almost 40 Christmases have passed during my time here at CRS. Coming up to the last one certainly brings back some memories.

Many of those Christmases were not at all like the ones I had growing up in Boston. It’s not cold or snowy in Sierra Leone in December. You don’t pull a scarf around your neck or smell roasting chestnuts as Christmas approaches in Manila. And reindeer seem a bit out of place in Nairobi—wildebeest maybe, but not reindeer.

I remember the Christmases when duty called, like the one when I tried to get a desperately ill CRS worker out of Togo so she could get better medical care.

And none of us who were with CRS in 2004 will ever forget the abrupt ending to our family gatherings and celebrations when the tsunami struck a huge area of the Pacific basin on December 26.

Even when we are back in the Northern Hemisphere in the midst of our family and friends, we are always reminded that CRS’ work does not stop for any holiday, religious or otherwise.

Another lesson learned was that, wherever we went, however far from sleigh bells and mistletoe, we still found Christmas. We were always reminded of the universal reach of our Church—that the good news of Christ’s birth is celebrated throughout the world. And we found that an essential part of the good news is that it leads us to help each other, our neighbors around the corner and around the globe.

I am so excited about Carolyn’s taking over this position. I have known her for years since inviting her to join our board in 2004 as one of its first lay members. She is such a fine person, and I can’t wait to see the vision and energy she will bring to the agency.

But both Carolyn and I know that CRS is not about one person. And it’s not just about the thousands who work for CRS around the world. It’s also about the thousands of local partners we have in nearly 100 countries, people we work with every day to bring care and hope. It’s about the hundreds of thousands in the United States who hear the good news and use us to help carry it out. And it’s about the millions who benefit from our work, who so often give us so much more than we could ever give them.

We are all part of CRS, whether you are putting a quarter in an Operation Rice Bowl box or a few shillings, kwacha or pesos in a savings program CRS sponsors. Whether you are drinking water from a well that CRS helped build or getting together with your fellow students on a college campus to raise awareness of the world’s needs. Whether you are in a new house in Haiti that you and CRS built or are getting in touch with your representatives in Congress to ensure that the poorest people in the world continue to receive aid from the richest of the world’s nations.

So, this is not the last Christmas I will celebrate with CRS. Like you, I know that I will be a part of the CRS family for as long as I live. It will always be in my life, as all of you will always be in my heart.

The greatest Christmas gifts I have received over the past 4 decades are these: getting to work with you, getting to know so many of you and being able to serve you, and your desire to help those who need it the most.

Thank you so much for all you have given me over the years.

Merry Christmas!

Ken Hackett
President

In November, we in America take time to give thanks. This year, though, that might be tough for many who are facing unemployment, lesser employment or even a home foreclosure. Still, we find a way to give thanks for our many blessings, and do so around a full table, reminding us that the origin of Thanksgiving was a humble appreciation for the food the land has given us.

Whether you believe all the details of the story about Native Americans and the Pilgrims, our Thanksgiving resembles rituals in cultures around the world. It is a celebration of the harvest.

It is easy to forget the harvest at the Thanksgiving table, not only because, despite our economic problems, we still have such abundance in this country, but because most of us are so removed from the actual production of food. We go to the grocery store and find a vast array of food that is completely disconnected from the season. The wheat in the bread we eat…. Who knows when or where it was harvested?

What we now take for granted, such as fresh vegetables year round, was unheard of a few generations ago, even in America. Meat now arrives not just from the stockyards of the West but from Australia. And canned plus dried and frozen foods—almost every kind of foodstuff—are readily available in some form.

This experience is so different from most of the rest of world, including in most of the countries where Catholic Relief Services works. Consider that, in Ethiopia, more than 80 percent of its 90 million people work in agriculture. Almost all are subsistence farmers. They eat what they grow. And if they don’t grow anything, they have nothing to eat.

Sometimes when drought strikes—like the one currently gripping East Africa, including much of Ethiopia—you hear people wondering why so many live in such an inhospitable place. Why don’t they just move to where it rains?

The fact is that droughts strike most everywhere. We have one going on right now in Texas. Many others have plagued our country in recent years. But we don’t feel their effects because we still find plenty to eat at the supermarket. With all the shipping and canning and freezing, our food system has plenty of ways to work around a shortage caused by a drought. So when we give thanks this harvest season, let’s be thankful for a food system that provides such abundance and resilience.

You are helping people around the world develop such resilience. It will be a long time before rural markets in Ethiopia and other countries resemble our supermarkets, but that these markets exist, that farmers have excess crops to sell at those markets, that people have money to spend from new livelihoods, are frequently all because of the work you support through CRS. With the current drought, many still are not getting enough to eat, but, through programs such as the CRS-led consortium in Ethiopia called the Joint Emergency Operation Plan, you’re helping to provide food to about 1 million people.

As we give thanks for our abundance in 2011, let us—as individuals and as a country—remember to share that abundance with our global family, who are thankful that they have anything at all to eat.

As I give thanks this year, it will be for having had the opportunity to serve you and work together for the past 4 decades to bring hope to those in need around the world. I cannot think of a greater blessing for me or my family. Thank you so much for being a part of it.

Ken Hackett
President

As fall begins, those of us at Catholic Relief Services headquarters can look over an eventful end to a summer that brought us everything from an earthquake that rattled our building to hurricanes that drenched us and forced even the smallest of streams over their banks. This all came as we marked anniversaries in this country: 5 years since Hurricane Katrina and 10 years since the attacks of September 11.

As I watched the rising waters here and throughout the East, my thoughts returned to Katrina. I could not help asking a simple question: What if the levees had held?

Certainly, Katrina would still have been a powerful hurricane, producing extensive damage and disrupting many lives—perhaps tragically losing some. But it would have been nothing like the devastation in New Orleans 5 years ago.

I had other questions: What if security services had caught the 9/11 hijackers long before they boarded an aircraft? What if the buildings in Haiti had been built to codes that kept them from collapsing in the 2010 earthquake?

So many of you look to help people—in partnership with CRS—when disaster strikes. And we respond when tragedies occur. That is what we are doing right now in East Africa, where drought and famine have created the world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Thanks to you, we can help so many.

But you need to know that, throughout the years, when there are no disasters in the headlines, you are also building “levees” through CRS. They might be wells in Ethiopia or dams in Kenya, new agricultural practices in Tanzania or health clinics in Vietnam, savings communities in Chad or trees planted in Guatemala.

Whatever specific form they take, your levees do what those in New Orleans were supposed to: They help keep people safe. When the rains fail to fall, or when they fall too hard; when hurricanes hit or the earth shakes; when disease snakes its way through a community or the vagaries of the global markets wreak havoc on local economies—whatever the disaster, your levees offer protection.

If the levees had held in New Orleans 5 years ago, the heroes would have been engineers and laborers. You would never have known their names. You would not even have thought of them as heroes, but as people who did their jobs. Yet they would have saved many more lives and much more property than any of those who responded after flooding hit that city.

It’s the same way with disease. We often laud—rightfully so—doctors who cure the sick. But too often we do not give enough recognition to the public health workers who administer the vaccines that keep disease at bay so people do not need to see those doctors.

Every day of every year, you are building levees through CRS. Many people in East Africa right now are surviving this drought because of what you have done. People in South Sudan are living in peace because of what you have done. And people all over the world whose suffering is not in the headlines or on your TV screen have been helped by you to survive storms of all sorts.

It is because of you that CRS can build so many levees. Thank you for letting us be of service.

Ken Hackett
President

As you know, East Africa is in the grip of a horrible drought. We have all seen images of the hungry and malnourished arriving in refugee camps, many after walking for weeks or months, surviving not only the bleak landscape but also bandits and even wild animals. The perseverance of these people, of mothers sacrificing to save their children, is a tribute to the human spirit.

This is personal for me. I worked in this region in similar crises going back to the 1970s. Just before becoming CRS’ president in 1993, I was in Kenya as we helped Somalis who suffered through a drought made worse by political conditions. And now here we are again.

As before, we are responding to this great need. In the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, where tens of thousands of distressed Somalis have trekked for food and safety, hygiene supplies are on their way to assist some of the many hundreds who arrive every day. CRS will take an active role in the expansion of the camps to serve the burgeoning population that now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. We are also helping Kenyan residents who live near the camps, who are feeling the stresses brought by the drought and by the multitude of refugees.

If there is one thing that this crisis proves, it is that, while drought is an act of nature, in this day and age, famine is made by people. Unrest in Somalia has severely limited the work of humanitarian groups like CRS. With our partners, we have worked for years to get as much aid as we can directly to Somalis. All of us must work and pray together for the recovery of Somalia.

But even as you help us aid those stricken by drought, I want you to know that you have been helping many more families come through this difficult time healthy and safe. After past food crises in Ethiopia, a coalition of aid groups, led by CRS, put in place a system to get food to those who find themselves in need. Working with the government of Ethiopia, this coalition has more than doubled the number of Ethiopians receiving food, to over a million, in response to this drought.

Moreover, there are many Ethiopians and Kenyans who need little or no food aid during this drought. Over the years CRS has worked with communities to drill wells, sometimes 1,000 feet deep. We have helped develop irrigation projects and build reservoirs and other water retention systems. We have worked with farmers who are now planting crops that do better when rainfall is erratic.

This is work that is over and above our response to the emergency. Frankly, it is not work that gets you on television. But it is work that not just saves lives, it enriches lives. It allows families to plan for the future. It allows children to grow up healthy and strong. It brings hope to people who have known too much fear and uncertainty.

Through CRS, you have been working in Ethiopia and Kenya for decades. And when this crisis is over and the reporters and photographers and cameramen have left, you will still be there. Our goal for the next drought in East Africa is that the journalists will not return because there will be no story: people will be coping despite the hardships.

It is not a goal we are going to realize any time soon, but it is a worthy one. It is because of you that we can strive to make it happen.

Thank you for letting us be of service.

Ken Hackett
President

Please join me in welcoming Carolyn Y. Woo, the next president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services. As one of the first lay members of the CRS board of directors, Carolyn is a familiar presence to us, and she and I have traveled together to visit our overseas programs.

Carolyn is a warm and caring person whose deep faith underlies everything she does. She will not begin at CRS until January 2012 because of her duties as dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. We will, though, be seeing a lot of her between now and then, with visits planned to headquarters and more of our overseas programs.

I know that CRS will thrive under Carolyn’s leadership. I look forward to your getting to know her—to admire her—as I do.

I also want to tell you about my trip to South Sudan last month for the ceremonies marking that new nation’s independence.

It was a privilege to be asked to join the official U.S. presidential delegation—which included General Colin Powell and eight others—headed by United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. I was the only nongovernmental member on our U.S. government plane that flew out of Washington, D.C.

This honor was a tribute to the role the Catholic Church has played in South Sudan over the years. Throughout decades of war and struggle, the Church has counseled peace and offered consoling support to these tormented people.

CRS has been with the southern Sudanese since the early 1970s. Your support enabled us to help bring about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and the peaceful referendum that resulted in a vote for independence this past January. When you prayed with the South Sudanese and the many religious who came to this country to work for peace, you joined with us in giving hope to this country—even when so many thought their situation was hopeless.

The journey with my fascinating companions to the independence ceremonies in the fast-growing city of Juba—the capital of the world’s newest nation—was exhilarating. It seemed like half the country turned out in the very hot sun for the hours-long parades, speeches and prayers so they could be a part of history.

Your solidarity with the people of South Sudan was a tangible presence in Juba. One reason I was there was to let them know that CRS will stay with South Sudan to help it realize its potential as a peaceful and prosperous country.

CRS’ attention is focused also on a full-scale drought in areas of East Africa, where we have been monitoring rainfall amounts for months. The drought is affecting millions in Kenya and Ethiopia, where CRS has robust food, agricultural and water programs. We are determining exactly how to scale up those programs—and add new ones—to respond to the needs of these suffering people.

The situation developed when the rains failed to come last fall and resulted in no harvest. Most could have handled that missing harvest, but, when the spring rainfall was sporadic and spotty, and too many areas missed a second harvest, it threw people into crisis. Add to that rising food prices, and you have a bad situation made worse.

Complicating matters is the status of Somalia, which is suffering not only from the same failed rains but from a lack of governance. The absence of security means that humanitarian organizations cannot enter the country to help, so Somalis are now pouring over the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia to seek assistance. We are working on ways to help this desperate refugee population.

All could be much worse. The communities you supported through CRS—communities that saw new wells and other water projects—have come through these failed rains in good shape. Although people will always need CRS to respond to natural disasters like this drought, you have helped us ensure that more and more villages and towns can take care of themselves. You make this happen when you give CRS the privilege of living out your commitment to poor people overseas. We are so grateful for that.

Thank you for letting all of us at CRS be of service to you.

Ken Hackett
President

I hope that everyone in the Catholic Relief Services family will join together this month to welcome a new nation into the world community: The Republic of South Sudan.

I am traveling to Juba, its capital, for the independence day ceremonies on July 9. There I will join many CRS colleagues who worked so hard to make this day come to pass, and I will celebrate with the wonderful bishops of South Sudan who deserve great praise for their persistent effort to bring peace to their troubled land.

Desmond Tutu, when he was Anglican archbishop of South Africa, once said he was not surprised—as many were—that his country had made a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy because “so many people all around the world were praying for us.”

The same can be said of Sudan. We know that you joined the Sudanese bishops in praying for their country in these past months. Many of you saw these bishops as they traveled to the United States, pleading their country’s case at the United Nations and in Washington, and participating in Mass in many cities, including with Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

We know that you joined the religious from all corners of the globe in Solidarity With Southern Sudan, which asked for 101 Days of Prayer leading up the January 9 referendum on secession for the south. We know that, in churches all over America, all over the world, prayers went up for peace in Sudan, prayers that were answered.

As Sudanese Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Diocese of Tombura-Yambi said during a recent visit to the United States, “In the run-up to the referendum, there was much written about the bad scenarios leading to war. Because of the faith of the people, God blessed us with a peaceful referendum. And I believe, because of the people’s commitment and faith, we can build a Sudan of peace.”

Certainly your prayers are still needed. There has been too much recent violence, particularly in the border areas between the Republic of the Sudan to the north and the new Republic of South Sudan. The violence in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan needs the full attention of the international community. Though a far cry from the full-scale civil war that so many feared, it is still a real threat to this new nation.

The Catholic Church in Sudan is inviting all people of goodwill to take part in 9 days of prayer for the future of the new state before the July 9 ceremony. The Church’s prayer ends with these words:

Unite us from every tribe, tongue and people.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us, and may your will be done in us.
God, bless our new nation; bless the Republic of South Sudan; bless also the Republic of Sudan.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

Even if all were perfectly peaceful, South Sudan would need your prayerful concern for years to come. It is devastated after years of fighting and neglect. It has few paved roads. Access to clean water and good sanitation is limited. Medical care is rudimentary. Educational opportunities are scarce.

At CRS, we are committed to staying with South Sudan in the years and decades to come as it finds its path among the nations of the world. It will not be an easy trip. There will be plenty of bumps in the road. There will be unexpected twists and turns, probably a detour or two. But it is a journey we are committed to make.

We will make it with the Sudanese Church, which stood as a bulwark during the decades of war, then led the way to peace on every level—local, national and international. The faith of the people of South Sudan gives them that most important commodity: hope.

Please join us as we work to nurture, preserve and grow that hope into the peace and prosperity that the people of Sudan, north and south, so richly deserve.

As an infant, Bishop Kussala was spared when soldiers invaded his family’s home and killed his mother and sister. Now, 47 years later, he came to the United States both to give thanks for past support and to ask for continued help in the future.

“The legacy of a peaceful, dignified and free Sudan will be both yours and ours,” he says. “God bless you all.”

Thank you for your continued support.

Ken Hackett
President

So, we come to the end of another school year. For me, that means the wonderful opportunity to address graduates of some fine institutions of higher learning. This year, it was my privilege to speak at the commencements at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and St. Thomas University in St. Paul. It is so inspiring to see these wonderful young women and men as they begin the next part of their journeys.

This commencement season was special to me because my son graduated from Loyola Blakefield High School in Baltimore. My wife and I are, of course, proud parents. I can only hope that, at the dinner table during his 18 years, he has absorbed all those lessons that I try to convey in my 10-minute commencement speeches.

June is also the month when we honor fathers, so I am going to indulge myself with a reflection on that important role. Although there is certainly truth in the traditional roles of the mother as the nurturer and the father as the protector and provider, there are, of course, no boundaries in the daily lives of mothers and fathers as they raise their families. We all do a bit of everything.

One of the toughest things for a father to do is not protect his child—to let him find his own way even if it’s not what we would have chosen, even if we are certain it is not the best way. Sometimes our child will falter. Sometimes she will fail. Sometimes fathers have to sit back and watch as our children fall and hurt themselves. It makes us feel that we have failed to protect them. But wise parents know that, unless we let our children stumble, they will never walk on their own.

Frankly, it is a lesson that we have to learn and relearn as we go about our development work at Catholic Relief Services. That is not to say we approach those we help as a father would his children. We don’t seek to be parents, but partners, with those we serve.

Frequently, though, we are trying to impart knowledge and experience as we seek to help our poor brothers and sisters. What we try to do is a manifestation of that traditional Chinese proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The tough part is when you watch your student learning to fish and she doesn’t catch anything. You want to take the pole out of her hands, catch some fish and be done with it. But she won’t learn anything that way. And neither will you.

This is why in Haiti, as its people recover from the earthquake, CRS has to make sure that we allow our local partners, the Haitians, to lead the recovery efforts. For too long in that country those of us from the outside have gone in and done too much ourselves. Only if Haitians lead the redevelopment will something lasting be built.

This is why, as southern Sudan becomes the world’s newest nation next month—even as we give our support and help—we must let it grow and develop in its own way, never directing or dictating. I do urge you to pay attention to this nascent state.

CRS relies on local partners almost everywhere we work. We understand that we must build up their abilities to solve their problems long after we have gone. But we also know that learning is a two-way street. It may well be that the partner we’re trying to teach to fish knows more than we realize. He knows the river he’s fishing in, he knows where he should put his line, he knows that he must be patient. And it is not until he pulls a fish out of the water that we learn what we did not know.

And isn’t that so often true with our kids as well? As parents, we work hard to teach them what we can, to impart whatever wisdom we think we have accumulated, and then we cringe when they seem to be heading down some wayward path. But what do they often find down there? Something wonderful and unexpected. Something we would have never known about if we hadn’t let them go off on their own.

That’s what I find out every time I address a college commencement. These graduates teach me so much. As I’m sure my son will too, now that he is embarking on his college journey.

Thank you for letting us be of service to you.

Ken Hackett
President

Mother.

It is such a simple, common, everyday word, yet so complex, so full of meaning.

Play a word association game with it. What first comes into your mind when you hear it? Probably something like “nurture” or “supportive.” Think Mother Nature or Mother Earth. But we also use mother to mean strong and powerful—as in that infamous phrase “the mother of all battles.”

There is a paradox in there. It is one that we see in our religion when we think of Mary, the mother of God—at once humble and exalted.

In this month when we honor mothers, we can learn from that paradox, learn something about how we should treat each other, how we should approach the world around us.

Almost all mothers would do anything for their children—would give them food before eating it themselves, would sleep in the rain so their children would have shelter, would shiver in the cold so their children were warm. And it is because they are willing to sacrifice so much for us that they become such powerful figures.

On a very pragmatic level, this is a power that we at Catholic Relief Services try to use every day. One of our most successful programs is called Savings and Internal Lending Communities — SILC for short. These are groups of people from very poor communities that we bring together so they can pool some of their money, learn to save, learn to borrow, learn to lend. They decide on a regular savings program. And they decide how to lend out the money to their members, how it will be repaid, what the interest rate will be.

One of the reasons SILC programs are working so well, really having an impact on the economic development of these communities, is that most of their members are mothers. And like most mothers everywhere, they put their children first.

There are many other examples of this in our work. In our work with those with HIV, mothers provide much of the community support, checking to see if patients need anything, if they are sticking to their medical regimens. Another example: in emergencies we prefer to hand out food to mothers, who will give food directly to their children.

You can see examples in the scriptures of the ideal of such compassionate humility and service—from Christ washing the feet of the disciples to his sacrifice on the cross. These show us that true power does not derive from strength and force. It comes from nurturing and supporting. It comes from love. It comes from the ideals we associate with mothers.

This is the model we try to follow in our mission. We want to know from those we seek to help what they need, how we can be of service. In that way we know our programs will be more successful. And we want to know that from you as well: how we can be of service to you in carrying out the message of the gospel to help those in need.

And where did we first learn this most important lesson? From our mothers, of course. Let us honor them this month, and every month of the year.

Thank you for your continued support.

Ken Hackett
President

Catholic Relief Services extends our deepest sympathies and heartfelt prayers to the people of Japan, who have endured a horrific tragedy that has touched all of us. Because the focus of CRS is on the poor people of the world, we do not have operations in prosperous, developed countries such as Japan. Nevertheless, we stand ready to assist when called. And we are eager to pass along the generosity of Catholics in the United States and others of goodwill to our partners on the ground who will provide relief and recovery.

As I write to you from Maryland, spring is under way, with its longer days, a bit of warmth in the air, the first yellow of forsythia, the crocuses nudging their way out of the ground. In our liturgical calendar, we celebrate Christianity’s most important moment: Easter. On that glorious Sunday morning, the hope and promise of the Gospel was fulfilled—triumph over death.

It was literally a new beginning for the world, one filled with hope rather than despair. That is what CRS looks for every day in our work—hope. And every day we find it, just as you might when a daffodil blooms or a dogwood springs to life. You and I can see new beginnings all over the world: in a village, where people drink fresh water from a newly drilled well; in a woman who has started a business with money CRS helped her save; in a father with HIV who can now care for his children because of the medicine he receives at a mission hospital supported by CRS through funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

This spring, we see a new beginning in southern Sudan, soon to be the world’s newest country, created when its people voted in a referendum to secede. As you know, I have been talking to you about the situation there for more than a year now. In no small part because of your support of CRS efforts, the people of southern Sudan defied all odds and voted peacefully, with integrity, avoiding the violence that has plagued their land for decades.

And so the southern Sudanese face this spring feeling like the blossom on a new rose—fresh and bright and hopeful. But like that blossom, their country is very fragile. Violence, particularly in disputed areas, could still make the process of formal separation—set for July—difficult. Even if everything goes smoothly, southern Sudan will not just be the newest country, but also one of the poorest in the world. At the best of times, it was neglected. At the worst, it was destroyed by violence. Years of work are necessary to bring its people the peace and prosperity they deserve.

So that is why I am asking you to stay with Sudan. CRS plans to remain active in Sudan for years to come, working mainly through our Church partners who were so essential in making this transition peaceful. The journey did not end with the referendum; in some ways, it just began. CRS needs you to keep Sudan in your thoughts and prayers this spring, to reaffirm your solidarity with its people.

The story of Sudan reminds us of the story told to us in the Gospel. Only 2 days before the wonderful news of Easter morning, Jesus’ disciples despaired as Christ died on the cross. It was the journey through that despair that gave hope for the future. The people of southern Sudan took that journey during their years of violence. The people of Japan are on that journey now.

I ask you to join us in praying for them. We will stand with them, because we know there is hope in their future. We reaffirm that every Easter.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,

Ken Hackett
President

The Lenten season is full of discussion about sacrifice, what it means and how it connects you and me to the selflessness that is at the center of our commitment to Christ.

Consider what Pope Benedict XVI said in his Lenten message this year about fasting and the other sacrifices we make for Lent:

By rendering our table poorer, we learn to overcome selfishness in order to live in the logic of gift and love; by bearing some form of deprivation—and not just what is in excess—we learn to look away from our “ego”… and to recognize God in the face of so many brothers and sisters.

“For Christians,” the Holy Father said, “fasting, far from being depressing, opens us ever more to God and to the needs of others, thus allowing love of God to become also love of our neighbor.”

This is exactly what we mean at Catholic Relief Services when we say that solidarity can transform the world. As we state in our guiding principles: “We are all part of one human family—whatever our national, racial, religious, economic or ideological differences—and in an increasingly interconnected world, loving our neighbor has global dimensions.”

Operation Rice Bowl, CRS’ annual Lenten program, offers Catholics in the United States an opportunity to follow that call to sacrifice by learning about their brothers and sisters who live in poverty and by making sacrificial contributions that will help our global neighbors improve their lives. This year’s theme, We Are Disciples of All Nations, reflects this opportunity to reach out and engage beyond our borders as we highlight the people, cuisine and CRS projects in Haiti, Indonesia, Senegal, Honduras and Kenya.

Each Lent, Catholic families, parishes and schools use symbolic rice bowls during the 40 days of Lent as the focal point for their prayer, fasting and learning. Participants fast in solidarity with those who hunger. They make the small sacrifice of preparing simple, meatless recipes from developing countries each week and place into the rice bowls the money they would have spent on a big meal. That money goes to support CRS’ mission to fight global hunger.

Catholics raise approximately $6 million every year through Operation Rice Bowl, 75 percent of which CRS uses to fund hunger and poverty projects in 40 countries. The remaining 25 percent stays in U.S. dioceses to support food pantries and soup kitchens.

Since its beginning in 1975, Operation Rice Bowl has raised more than $199 million to fund CRS’ development projects. With participation in almost every diocese in the United States, many communities and families have adopted CRS’ Operation Rice Bowl as a way to observe Lent.

As you contemplate the sacrifice of Christ during Lent, I hope you will come to see that his sacrifice united all of us in this world into his family. And as you sacrifice in this season, I hope you will see it as a joyful burden rather than a painful sacrifice for your family.

As Pope Benedict said in his message: “The Lenten period is a favorable time to recognize our weakness and to accept, through a sincere inventory of our life, the renewing Grace of the Sacrament of Penance, and walk resolutely towards Christ.”

Thank you for letting us serve you,

Ken Hackett
President