Parish Overseas Partnerships

Click here for CRS Parish Partnership manual.

Click here for the one-page precis of how the Parish Partnership Manual affects the Diocese of Youngstown.

For a guided reflection on applying these guidelines to your international missions project, click here.

Catholic Relief Services has published a manual to assist parishes in conducting missionary relationships with dioceses, parishes, and other Catholic institutions overseas. The manual was commissionsed as lessons were learned in responding to the recent earthquake in Haiti (2010) as well as in response to various issues that have arisen over "home-grown" methods of being missionary. By assessing best practices and lessons learned over centuries of missionary experience, we now turn toward this manual to refine our outreach from various parishes in the Diocese of Youngstown.

Anyone involved in an outreach missions project should download the Parish Partnership Manual.  Click here for the Parish Partnership Manual. Click here for the one-page precis of the manual as it affects the Diocese of Youngstown. This manual is the model for all missions relations involving our parishes, schools, and other institutions. Staff from the Propagation of the Faith and Missions Office as well as from the Diocesan Office of Catholic Relief Services are working with each project so that a covenant between the Bishop of Youngstown and the Bishop of that place is in operation.

Covenants must be in place for any funds to be collected within the Diocese of Youngstown for any missions activity after December 31, 2011. This requirement also includes groups such as Bread for the World and Food for the Poor, The Cross, and Save the Children. Anyone with questions regarding authorization to take up these collections should immediately contact the Director of Propagation of the Faith and Missions Office at 330-744-8451, ext 277.

Covenant writing will be conducted on a project-by-project basis. At present plans are:

• Moshi Diocese - This includes water wells and seminary support - at the regular Friends of Moshi meeting on September 8, 2011 at 7pm.
• El Salvador - This includes anything within the Diocese of Chalatenango, as well as anything anywhere in that nation - Father John Castro, O.M.I. will conduct a workshop on Saturday October **, 2011 at St. Columba Parish Hall. Everyone is invited to attend and contribute to the process.
• Haiti -  By private appointment with diocesan and parish personnel.
• Uganda - By private appointment with diocesan and parish personnel.