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Please join me in prayer and fasting tomorrow at noon for the “One Human Family, Food for All” campaign.  Archbishop Coakley, Chairman of Catholic Relief Services, has announced the Holy Father’s upcoming launch of a Caritas Internationalis global hunger campaign called “One Human Family, Food for All.” Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) are member organizations of Caritas Internationalis.

In his recently-released apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis has eloquently reminded us of the following: “In all places and circumstances, Christians, with the help of their pastors, are called to hear the cry of the poor” (191). Nearly one person in eight does not get enough to eat every day, yet the world produces enough food for everyone. This is the scandal that our hunger campaign is urgently calling us to address.

The launch of the “One Human Family, Food for All” campaign” coincides with the period of Advent, when we focus on the mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord. One of the ways Jesus is manifest to us is in the faces of the poor, the excluded, the outcast, and the marginalized (Matthew 25). The “One Human Family, Food for All” campaign will provide Catholics in the United States and around the world with the opportunity to bring Christ’s love to those in need – through prayer and through action.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2013, Pope Francis will launch the campaign with a five-minute video. At noon local time, a global wave of prayer will begin on the Island of Samoa and will progress around the world in each time zone until it reaches the island again some 24 hours and more than 164 countries later. While all prayers are helpful, the campaign has provided this prayer, which is also available in Spanish and French.

We are invited as an Archdiocese to join our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world by praying at noon on December 10 at our Chancery, in our parishes, in our schools, and in other settings. Catholic Relief Services has compiled a list of ideas to help you consider how to participate, both on December 10 and afterward. CRS also has a webpage with additional resources, action ideas, and information about the agricultural programs of CRS which, on behalf of all Catholics in the United States, fight poverty and hunger each and every day.

I will be in transit from one meeting to another at noon tomorrow and will take up this invitation to lift up the dignity of those who suffer from hunger.  I hope you also will do so.

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