How to Help the Poor This Christmas
Cross Catholic Outreach
We mobilize the global Catholic Church to transform the poor and their communities around the world.
Looking for a way to give back and bless others this Christmas? Cross Catholic Outreach’s Christmas Catalog is a way to incorporate almsgiving into your family’s Advent and Christmas observances.
As you explore the Christmas Catalog , you are able to “shop” for the gift that most touches your heart — from a soccer ball for a child to clean water for families in Kenya — much like the experience of selecting Christmas gifts from a commercial catalog. But these gifts are different. They allow you to be someone’s miracle, blessing impoverished children and families in developing countries around the world.
In this article, we’ll explore our Christmas Catalog gifts, new items for 2022, and how you can share Christ’s love where it is needed most.
Ways to Give
The Christmas Catalog features a variety of gifts to bless children, families and entire communities in developing countries. Gift categories include:
There are gifts for all price ranges, from providing prenatal vitamins for pregnant moms in Central America to building sturdy four-room homes in Haiti. No matter what you choose, every gift is a special way to bless children and families in need.
About the Christmas Catalog
The Christmas Catalog is an important part of Cross Catholic Outreach’s vision of all Catholics around the world uniting to overcome material and spiritual poverty.
We work directly with Catholic bishops, priests, sisters and lay missionaries who live among the poor in developing countries such as the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Ethiopia.
Our overseas partners are eager to make a difference, but they lack the funding needed to carry out important poverty relief and spiritual outreach programs. The Christmas Catalog is designed to bridge this funding gap, giving U.S. Catholics the opportunity to select from 35 gifts that will bless the poor this Christmas.
In 2021, more than 95% of Cross Catholic Outreach’s organizational expenses went directly to programs that help the poor, so you can be assured that your gift will have a tremendous impact.
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Our Most Popular Christmas Catalog Gifts
U.S. Catholics have been supporting our Christmas Catalog for over a decade. Last Christmas, the most popular item was Vitafood, protein-rich meals formulated to meet the needs of malnourished children. We ship Vitafood in bulk to ministry partners in developing countries, where the meals reach hungry children and families. Our Vitafood outreach is a way to rush nutritious food where it is needed most, and it can also avert catastrophe when a sudden emergency, such as a hurricane or earthquake, disrupts a community’s food supply.
Another popular catalog selection is Box of Joy. This special outreach puts smiles on the faces of thousands of children by allowing them to open their own boxes full of Christmas gifts — and they receive a message about Jesus’ love for them too.
What’s New in 2022
Our 2022 Christmas Catalog includes several meaningful projects highlighted for the first time. One of our new featured items is emergency aid for children and families in Ukraine. With your help, we will continue to rush food, water, sanitary kits and other relief to help war refugees and internally displaced families.
If healthcare is your passion, you might be interested in sponsoring breast cancer awareness and screenings in Haiti. This gift will help train volunteer health agents to educate women in rural areas on breast health and how to perform self-exams.
You can also support anti-trafficking efforts in the Philippines, helping compassionate Catholic sisters provide a safe and loving home environment for girls, as well as child protection clinics to teach boys to respect women and value marriage.
Do you believe every child deserves a quality education? Catholic school scholarships in Kenya will provide a life-transforming education for impoverished children in the Nkaimurunya community near the capital city of Nairobi.
Make Cross Catholic Outreach Your Christmas Charity
The annual Christmas Catalog offers Catholic families lots of inspiring and impactful options for sponsoring a truly meaningful Christmas gift — one that will address a real and urgent need. Be sure to browse the Christmas Catalog online and give to whichever projects the Lord calls your heart. With your help,?we can reach more needy families than ever before, blessing them with material aid and the spiritual joy of knowing our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Author: Michele Sagarino, Vice President for Development