Cross Catholic Outreach

Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor

Delivering food, shelter and hope to the poorest of the poor.

Box of Joy® Blesses Record Number of Children in 2022

Guatemalan girl holding a box of joy.
Through Box of Joy, children such as Gloria in Guatemala received meaningful Christmas gifts for the first time in their lives.

Cross Catholic Outreach offers innovative programs to connect U.S. Catholics with the poor overseas through acts of service, and the Box of Joy ministry is a perfect example of that interactive outreach!

Every year since Box of Joy began in 2014, parishes, groups, schools and families have united to pack shoebox-sized Christmas gifts for children in the developing world. In fact, the most recent 2022 Box of Joy season blessed 118,990 children with these gifts — and for many of these boys and girls, it was the first Christmas present they had ever received.

The 2022 Box of Joy gifts were shipped to six countries: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, and (for the first time ever) Malawi. Children in the Diocese of Karonga in Malawi were extremely blessed by all the fun and meaningful presents. Their joy was uncontainable!

We are very grateful to every person who made this season such a success. So many people came together to donate gifts, pack boxes, screen items for shipping, and host Drop-Off Centers for their local communities. Please know your efforts put bright smiles on children’s faces and made this a year they will never forget. Thank you for assuring them that they are deeply loved by Christ and his Church!

Learn more about this special ministry at CrossCatholic.org/box-of-joy.

Box of Joy is a registered trademark of Cross Catholic Outreach.

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Monsignor Ted Bertagni

Monsignor Ted Bertagni

Monsignor Bertagni is the Director of Clergy and Diocesan Relations for Cross Catholic Outreach, He was ordained a priest in 1978 in Omaha, NE and invested as Monsignor in 1999. He was a Conventual Franciscan in Our Lady of Consolation Province and is presently incardinated into the Diocese of Mandeville Jamaica. Msgr. Bertagni has an international background having studied and lived in Europe and Caribbean. He holds STL and STD degrees from Sant’ Anselmo, the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. He served 20 years as a parish priest, pastor and professor, before dedicating himself full time to the service of the poor. In 2016, he was commissioned as a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis.