Natural disaster. Famine. Drought. Regional instability. These and other circumstances cause families around the world to cry out for relief and support.
Thankfully, help is available. Cross Catholic Outreach is ready to send urgently needed aid to trusted ministry partners working to lift children, families and their communities out of crisis and help them build back stronger. Gifts to our Most Urgent Needs fund enable our partners to act decisively and quickly in times of need.
Join us today and bring relief to those who need it most. Your support will empower priests, sisters and lay ministries to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, shelter the homeless and provide medical care for the sick. Together, we can share God’s love and compassion with the world.
Hurricane Melissa was the strongest hurricane to ever hit Jamaica. Making landfall on Oct. 28, 2025, the Category 5 storm brought massive flooding and destruction.
It also brought terror — and chaos — into the lives of Jamaicans, especially poor families living in makeshift homes.
Kerry Ann will never forget the terror of that day in October. Her tiny tin house offered little protection for her three young children and newborn baby. Kerry Ann was so scared that she hid them under a mattress and tied a belt and some shoelaces to the violently shaking roof panels, hoping to hold them down.
Then she prayed: “No, Lord, not now. My children need me.”
The roof blew away, but the family survived by running to a nearby home for protection.
Still, in the face of disaster, the people of God remained strong. Local Catholic ministries, supported by Cross Catholic Outreach, rushed to aid Kerry Ann and other impoverished families whose lives were torn apart by the hurricane.
Our ministry partner, the Diocese of Mandeville, delivered new roofing materials to her home so she won’t have to rely on flimsy makeshift repairs. The diocese also is adding this loving mother to its microbusiness program funded by our supporters. Soon, Kerry will start a home-based business buying and reselling clothes so she can have a sustainable source of income to buy food for her children. The ministry team also hopes to provide her with a sturdy concrete-block home once its focus shifts from relief repair to home construction.
Cross Catholic Outreach continues to work with trusted ministry partners in Jamaica to help those in urgent need. With support from compassionate Catholics in the U.S., we are committed to helping even more families in Jamaica rebuild and recover from this disaster.
“Because we love God, that allows us to love others. And by providing aid alongside our partners, we provide love and hope.” Michele Sagarino
Michele’s heart for service and deep Catholic faith inspires her to connect U.S. Catholics with ministries serving the world’s most marginalized people. She’s served in leadership roles at Cross Catholic Outreach for 22 years. Michele transitioned from vice president of development to president in 2022 with the full support of every U.S. Catholic bishop and archbishop on our esteemed board of directors.
Families struggling with hunger, thirst and poverty need a strong Church to be there for them when it counts. Today, you can ensure our Church remains a source of relief, support and hope when impoverished families have the most urgent needs through life-changing programs like these:
Ship prepackaged meals around the world and help Catholic ministries buy food locally.
Drill wells and protect families from dangerous illnesses that trap them in desperation.
Build safe, sturdy homes for families living in unsafe and unsanitary dwellings.
Empower young minds with the educational and spiritual foundation to achieve goals.
Give girls and boys a safe, healthy start and protect them from human trafficking.
Rush critical supplies, such as food, water and blankets after natural and manmade disasters.
Help families launch small businesses so they can break the cycle of poverty.
Improve nutrition and increase families’ income with programs to grow crops and raise animals.
Our vision of “all Catholics around the world united in overcoming material and spiritual poverty” is more than just a noble slogan. We put those words into action by forming partnerships with local Catholic priests, sisters and lay leaders serving in impoverished and blighted communities.
By relying on the expertise of local ministries rather than imposing our own programs on their ministry teams, we are able to rapidly respond to the most urgent needs in ways that have a real, lasting impact. These in-country partners walk among the poor, understand their hardships and dreams, empathize with their suffering, nurture their spiritual lives, and often know better than anyone else how to help them rise out of poverty.
Cross Catholic Outreach is committed to excellence in stewardship and pledges to be fully accountable regarding how we use the funds you entrust to our ministry. We supply meaningful help where it is needed most, channeling urgent aid and cash grants through local Catholic leaders who are trusted in their communities.
With your help, Cross Catholic Outreach will have the flexibility to respond where we are most needed, serving with humility, fervor and love as we advance Catholic evangelization.
Ariana’s bright smile says it all — the nourishing Vitafood meals are keeping her and her brothers in rural Guatemala healthy, happy and full of hope. Cross Catholic Outreach provided 28.4 million Vitafood meals last year so hungry children could be fed.
Evaline and many other women and girls endure great hardships as they search for drinking water. Our supporters equip our ministry partners in Kenya and other developing countries to install water systems that bring clean, safe water to remote villages.
Deisy lovingly protects her little sister, Mercedes, from the harsh conditions of living in a crumbling mud-brick home in rural Guatemala. Your support will help our ministry partners provide safe living conditions for impoverished families across the world.
A Catholic education is a blessing for children like Manise in Haiti and other countries.
Today, you can be Christ’s hands and feet by serving families who are crying out for relief and a brighter future. Your support of Cross Catholic Outreach and its network of Church partners around the globe will enable you to be God’s instrument of mercy in answering those prayers for help.
Please, give generously so the priests, religious sisters and lay missionaries who work with our ministry partners can further their work in ways that will end suffering, open doors of opportunity and restore hope.
Those faithful servants of God have committed their lives to serving the poor in the most forgotten corners of the most forsaken lands. Your support will empower them to respond quickly to urgent needs and bring about the long-term transformation of communities that have been trapped in poverty for generations.
As we stand together for the good of all, we truly become one body in Christ!
Students raise their colorful cups to collect water at a borehole.
Donations from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2027, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.
