Cross Catholic Outreach

Cross Catholic Outreach was launched in 2001 with the goal of mobilizing the global Catholic Church to transform the poor and their communities materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ. We seek to accomplish this by empowering and resourcing effective Christian ministries already serving in these developing countries, but our goal involves more than just addressing the material needs of the poor. We believe that a healthy and complete transformation of individuals and families must also include spiritual support and faith-building activities that will produce loving, productive communities.
Cross Catholic Outreach has many partners in its relief and development process. These are typically Christian ministries already in place overseas and already serving the poor in destitute communities. We empower these in-country ministry partners by funding their operational expenses and by supplying them with food, medications, home building materials, educational supplies, and other requested material aid. This support increases their impact and, in some cases, significantly expands their outreaches to the poor.
Because we know solutions to poverty often require these ministries to become involved in more than one area of need at a time, we also promote a concept called community transformation. This strategy targets a specific area or diocese and addresses the needs of the poor holistically, working on improving multiple sectors at one time. For example, in one community we might simultaneously engage in projects to address nutrition, water and sanitation, housing, health care, education, and microenterprise opportunities.
Since we also believe spiritual support and faith-building activities are essential for individuals, families and communities to enjoy long-term prosperity, we are committed to integral human development as well. This approach, which combines material assistance with spiritual guidance and leadership training, can change communities in profound ways. It restores peace, encourages cooperation, and produces lasting positive changes in the areas where it has been utilized.

Although Cross Catholic Outreach believes strongly in the virtues of subsidiarity – which values in-country partners and seeks to empower them rather than overstep their local role – our approach makes use of our own staff’s expertise and training as well.
Our capabilities include departments with experience and skills in the acquisition of material aid; international shipping; government and organizational networking; IT services; and program/project management, including financial oversight, on-site monitoring and evaluation, and technical assistance with outreaches involved in nutrition, the installation of water systems, home construction, educational programming, and more.
Cross Catholic Outreach’s Mission Department employs a staff of highly trained and experienced specialists who oversee various regions of the world. Each becomes an expert on his or her area of service and monitors the general economic, cultural and political challenges there to better serve both our in-country partners and U.S. donors who want to support relief and development work overseas.
In addition to these capabilities, Cross Catholic Outreach also plays an important role in fundraising for the ministries it supports. Funding from U.S. sources is needed for these in-country partners to install sophisticated water systems, establish feeding programs, build homes, equip clinics, and construct and supply schools, but most of them have no way to solicit that help. One of Cross Catholic Outreach’s primary roles is to link ministry programs with prospective donors in the U.S. To achieve this, our Communications Department gathers information on projects and develops detailed proposals for individuals and foundations to review and fund. We also provide extensive follow-up reporting, ensuring that the donors who have contributed fully understand the impact their donations have made.
The communications team and our Development Department are also important in fulfilling one of our long-held educational objectives. Since its founding, Cross Catholic Outreach has made it a priority to inform parishes and U.S. Catholics about the tremendous impact Catholic missions are having in the developing world. This educational process plays an important motivational role in our mission to mobilize the Church and transform the communities of the poor.

Although Cross Catholic Outreach believes strongly in the virtues of subsidiarity – which values in-country partners and seeks to empower them rather than overstep their local role – our approach makes use of our own staff’s expertise and training as well.
Our capabilities include departments with experience and skills in the acquisition of material aid; international shipping; government and organizational networking; IT services; and program/project management, including financial oversight, on-site monitoring and evaluation, and technical assistance with outreaches involved in nutrition, the installation of water systems, home construction, educational programming, and more.
Cross Catholic Outreach’s Mission Department employs a staff of highly trained and experienced specialists who oversee various regions of the world. Each becomes an expert on his or her area of service and monitors the general economic, cultural and political challenges there to better serve both our in-country partners and U.S. donors who want to support relief and development work overseas.
In addition to these capabilities, Cross Catholic Outreach also plays an important role in fundraising for the ministries it supports. Funding from U.S. sources is needed for these in-country partners to install sophisticated water systems, establish feeding programs, build homes, equip clinics, and construct and supply schools, but most of them have no way to solicit that help. One of Cross Catholic Outreach’s primary roles is to link ministry programs with prospective donors in the U.S. To achieve this, our Communications Department gathers information on projects and develops detailed proposals for individuals and foundations to review and fund. We also provide extensive follow-up reporting, ensuring that the donors who have contributed fully understand the impact their donations have made.
The communications team and our Development Department are also important in fulfilling one of our long-held educational objectives. Since its founding, Cross Catholic Outreach has made it a priority to inform parishes and U.S. Catholics about the tremendous impact Catholic missions are having in the developing world. This educational process plays an important motivational role in our mission to mobilize the Church and transform the communities of the poor.

Through more than two decades, Cross Catholic Outreach has partnered with scores of ministries in more than 30 countries on projects to help the poor materially and spiritually. Because each ministry has had the freedom to focus on addressing the most urgent needs in its particular community, this has led to the development of a variety of projects and services touching hundreds of thousands of lives. For example, Cross Catholic Outreach has developed safe water systems; supplied nutritious food to feeding programs; constructed and repaired hundreds of homes; built and equipped clinics and schools; established a variety of microenterprise programs, including major agricultural and livestock projects; funded the care of disabled and orphaned children; and undertaken significant disaster relief efforts, including outreaches after the Southeast Asian tsunami, the Haiti earthquakes, multiple hurricanes and floods, and two outreaches involving war refugees.
Because our main role is to support the objectives of Church ministries, we expect our efforts to remain varied in the years ahead, but we also want to play a leadership role in mounting large-scale community transformation programs. Our successes in that area have already inspired the interest of many foundations and major donors, so we believe the number of community transformation projects we do annually could triple or quadruple in the years ahead.
Promoting integral human development is a priority for us too, and it is our intention to become a model ministry and thought leader in advancing that development strategy. Plans are already underway to gather information and develop case studies that will show how adding spiritual support to traditional relief and development activities produces important additional benefits in the communities being served. As we collect and share this information, it is our hope more humanitarian organizations will recognize the value of spiritual formation as part of the relief and development process, and the application of integral human development will expand worldwide.