Holy Childhood Association helps poor families in foreign
lands
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
MORRISVILLE — Children don’t have to travel to mission lands
to help others in need — they can start with their peers on the
playground.
“Start by reaching out to do something you know you can —
that’s how Jesus opens your heart,” said Vincent Gallagher,
a volunteer with the archdiocesan Holy Childhood Association (HCA) and
Hands Together, a Catholic lay mission that serves Haiti.
Gallagher spoke to students at Holy Trinity School in Morrisville, Bucks
County, during the school’s March 25 retreat, which carried a peacemaking
theme.
Speaking to students in the fifth through eighth grades, Gallagher shared
pictures of children living on the streets in Peru, Guatemala and Columbia,
and of families struggling to stay alive in the slums of Haiti. He also
described how he has seen the power of the Holy Spirit working through
missionaries who minister to children and families in need.
“There really are children suffering,” said Madison Blank,
a fifth-grader at Holy Trinity.
Madison said the discussion about the HCA opened her eyes to how much
she has — and how much others her age around the globe don’t
have: “It made me think back to all the times I was asking for more.
“Maybe we should do with less,” she said.
The HCA, which operates under the auspices of the Pontifical Mission Societies
of the archdiocesan Office for the Propagation of the Faith, is devoted
to helping grade school children understand the universal nature of the
Catholic Church.
Mission dioceses supported by the HCA are in more than 100 countries throughout
the world — in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and remote regions
of Latin America.
The focus of the HCA is “children helping children” throughout
the world, said Maureen Rilling, the association’s mission coordinator
for education for the Archdiocese.
After learning about the needs of the world’s poorest children,
young people are invited to pray and to offer financial help so that children
in missionary lands may know Christ and experience His love and care,
Rilling added.
Helping the poor through the HCA has been a high priority for Holy Trinity
School for years, said Barbara Ann Nuzzolo, the principal.
“The children here are very caring,” Nuzzolo said.
According to officials for the HCA, the school has already contributed
nearly $500 this school year.
Eighth-grader Candace Hess was so inspired by the HCA presentation that
the next day she donated $10 out of her own pocket. “It taught me
a lot — how kids really need help in the world, and how we should
all try to help them,” she said.
A full range of HCA educational programs — including “HCA
Around the World,” special Advent and Lenten programs and periodic
newsletters — is available to all parishes of the Archdiocese. The
theme for the HCA resources for 2008-’09 is “Believe the Good
News” (Mark 1:14-15).
To host a HCA speaker, Catholic schools and parish religious education
programs may contact Rilling at (215) 587-3945 or e-mail her at HCA@adphila.org.
For more information, visit the Holy Childhood Association’s archdiocesan
Web site at www.phillymissions.org
or the national Web site at www.worldmissions-catholichurch.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.