Catholic Health Care, Social Services and Humanitarian Aid

These facts are for 2014 unless otherwise noted.

Health Care

  • 645 Catholic hospitals in the United States assist 87,972,910 patients annually.
  • One in six patients in the U.S. is cared for in a Catholic hospital.
  • There are over 19.5 million emergency room visits and over 102 million outpatient visits in Catholic hospitals during a one-year period.
  • Over 5.2 million patients are admitted to Catholic hospitals annually.
  • Catholic hospitals employ 521,821 full-time employees and 223,800 part-time workers.
  • Catholic health care systems and facilities are present in all 50 states providing acute care, skilled nursing and other services including hospice, home health, assisted living and senior housing.

In addition to hospitals, the Catholic health care network also includes: 

  • 438 health care centers assisting 4,648,844 patients annually.
  • 1,389 specialized homes assisting 636,410 individuals.
  • 105 Catholic residential homes for children, or orphanages, assisting annually 18,672 young people.
  • 853 Day Care and Extended Day Care Centers assisting 89,598 children.
  • 3,449 special centers for social services assisting 25,240,914 people.

Catholic health and social service organizations have a long tradition of service in the United States, dating back to 1727 in New Orleans, when 12 French Ursuline sisters arrived in the city and became nurses, teachers and servants of the poor and orphans. Today, the Catholic nonprofit health-care system serves diverse populations in every state  in the United States.

More information is available at Catholic Health Association at www.chausa.org.

Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) and its national network of social service agencies are on the front lines of responding to the needs of those living in poverty in America. In communities across the nation, the network of 177 Catholic Charities member agencies and affiliates help individuals and families move out of poverty and achieve their full potential by providing services in the areas of hunger, health, housing, education and workforce development, and family economic security.

CCUSA was founded in 1910 on the campus of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. as the National Conference of Catholic Charities. For more than 100 years, CCUSA has guided and supported the vast network of Catholic Charities agencies nationwide in our common mission to serve, advocate and convene.

According to the CCUSA 2014 Annual Survey, the Catholic Charities network provided services last year to over 8.5 million unduplicated clients at over 2,600 local sites across the country. Children under age 18 and seniors age 65 and over comprise more than 50% of the clients served by Catholic Charities across 31 service categories, including:

Adoption, pregnancy and marriage support services

  • 2,707 adoptions were completed in 2014, and over 18,000 clients received assistance such as post-adoption services and support groups.
  • Abstinence education and promotion programs, sponsored by 28 agencies, served over 29,000 clients, and over 11,200 clients received marriage promotion and strengthening support from 24 agencies nationwide.
  • Over 128,000 new and expecting mothers received pregnancy supportive services in 2014, a 4% increase from 2013.

Disaster operations

  • Nearly 60,000 individuals received services from Catholic Charities following a natural or man-made disaster to help put their lives back on track.

Education and workforce development

  • Nationwide, over 3,700 clients received GED services from Catholic Charities, with 426 clients achieving their GED, a 37% increase from last year.
  • Thirty agencies partner with community colleges to provide post-secondary education services.
  • Over 22,700 children received support from Catholic Charities through Early Head Start, Head Start and other pre-K programs.

Family Economic Security

  • In 2014, over 65,000 clients received employment services from Catholic Charities, with over 18,000 (or approximately three-tenths) achieving full-time employment.
  • Over 13,000 clients who received employment assistance from Catholic Charities are employed at jobs above the minimum wage.
  • Nearly 100,000 clients received financial literacy services from Catholic Charities, and hundreds of individuals received assistance from matched-savings programs or a micro-loan program.
  • Thirty-four agencies helped over 58,000 clients with accessing the Earned Income Tax Credit or in a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, a 5% increase from last year.

Health

  • Provided over 875,000 clients, including more than 220,000 children, with individual health-related services.
  • Catholic Charities agencies helped nearly 14,000 adults achieve enrollment in health insurance, a 17% increase from 2013, and guided over 11,000 children in enrollment in health insurance plans.
  • Over 300,000 clients received counseling and mental health services in 2014, and more than 105,000 received addiction services. Nearly 30,000 clients received assistance with prescription medications from Catholic Charities agencies.

Housing

  • The Catholic Charities network helped nearly 525,000 clients with housing-related services, an 11% increase from 2013, including offering roughly 33,600 permanent housing units for clients in need.
  • Seventy Catholic Charities agencies provide temporary shelter services, operating or managing 238 shelters with a total of nearly 10,200 available beds.

Hunger

  • About 3 in 5 of all client services provided in 2014 (63% of all client services provided) were for services that address hunger.
  • Some 153 agencies report operating 1,380 food banks, food pantries or food cupboards, serving nearly 6.6 million clients in 2014. The number of clients receiving services via food banks and food pantries has doubled since 2009.
  • Catholic Charities agencies delivered nearly 3.3 million meals to clients in their homes last year.
  • Children received summer lunches at 286 sites nationwide, and after-school meals were provided at 73 sites.

Immigration and refugee services

  • Over 325,000 clients received immigration services from Catholic Charities agencies in the last year, a 5% increase from 2013.
  • Nearly 70,000 refugees from violence-stricken homelands received services from Catholic Charities, with over 17,400 achieving self-sufficiency.
  • 73 agencies helped over 6,800 clients become naturalized citizens in 2014.
  • 48 Catholic Charities agencies provided services to unaccompanied minors in 2014, including offering legal services, providing family welcome centers, and other social services.

More information is available at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

IMMIGRANT AND HUMANITARIAN AID

Catholic Relief Services  

Founded in 1943 by the U.S. Bishops, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. Focusing on innovative programs in agriculture, health and emergency response, CRS partners with communities and other church institutions around the world to address urgent needs, while developing solutions to help vulnerable people survive and thrive long term.

CRS’ mission is grounded in Catholic values, which call to foster compassion and dignity among the world’s most marginalized people. In the U.S., CRS helps Catholics in parishes, dioceses and schools live their faith through tangible programs and activities that promote human dignity and respond to human needs around the world.

  • CRS reached nearly 85 million beneficiaries in 101 countries in FY 2014.
  • CRS had $651 million total operating expenses in FY 2014.
  • Some 92% of the budget went to program services, and 8% to support services.

Emergency Response and Recovery

  • More than 35% of CRS’ programming focuses on emergency relief. Once immediate needs for food, water and shelter are met, they move to rebuilding and reconstruction, helping people suffering from natural disasters, chronic emergencies and conflict reclaim their lives: 48 countries, 204 projects.

Health

  • CRS helps build healthy families, bringing quality care to communities with little or no access to health services of any kind. Their assistance focuses on people at greatest risk: mothers, infants and very young children. Their projects address a range of health challenges throughout life: 43 countries, 134 projects.

Agriculture

  • 805 million people in the world go hungry every day—one-eighth of all the people on earth. Chronic hunger affects health, growth, learning and income potential, therefore, CRS offers projects that combine health care, microfinance and literacy with sustainable agriculture: 45 countries, 191 projects.

More information is available at www.crs.org.

Migration and Refugee Services (MRS)

USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) is the world’s largest refugee resettlement agency. In 2014 Migration and Refugee Services provided assistance in the following categories:

Refugee Resettlement

  • MRS resettled 20,875 individuals into 92 dioceses in the U.S.
  • Largest refugee populations resettled by MRS in 2014 were Iraqi, Burmese, Bhutanese, Somali and Congolese.
  • 1,700 volunteers in over 290 parishes across the United States supported MRS’ Parishes Organized to Welcome Refugees (POWR) program, giving both their time and energy to help newly arriving refugees start a new life in the U.S.
  • 1,888: The combined number of Cubans (1,817) and Haitians (71) resettled by the MRS Cuban/Haitian program office in Miami in 2014.

Children’s Services

  • Served 1,279 unaccompanied children who arrived to the United States in 2014.
  • Provided foster care and shelter to 469 of these unaccompanied, migrant children.
  • Reunited 640 with family members while they were undergoing immigration proceedings.
  • Served 170 in Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) Program – 74 newly arriving unaccompanied children who became eligible for immigration status, and 96 unaccompanied children who arrived as refugees.  
  • 100% of these children get access to health care and education.
  • A recent government grant will allow MRS to provide legal representation to 1,248 unaccompanied children and a Child Advocate for 250 unaccompanied children.

Human Trafficking

  • The Amistad Movement trained over 225 volunteers in culturally diverse communities to recognize and provide support for victims of human trafficking.
  • Provided pre-employment and job readiness services to 120 survivors of human trafficking, to prepare them for employment.

Migration Policy and Public Affairs

  • Released reports on Syrian refugees, Refuge & Hope in the Time of ISIS and on the U.S. immigrant detention system, Unlocking Human Dignity: A Plan to Transform the U.S. Immigrant Detention System.
  • The Justice for Immigrants campaign sent 25,000 postcards and letters to Congress that voiced opposition to migrant family detention and called for the development of more humane alternatives.
  • Major 2014 events included the Border Mass (on the U.S.- Mexico border), Mass on the Hill (Capitol Hill), and the National Migration Conference Advocacy Day, with hundreds of attendees at each.

More information is available at https://www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/ and www.justiceforimmigrants.org.

Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC)

In 1988, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) established CLINIC as a legally distinct 501(c)(3) organization to support a rapidly growing network of community-based immigration programs. CLINIC's network originally comprised 17 programs. CLINIC and its affiliate agencies represent low-income immigrants without reference to their race, religion, gender, ethnic group, or other distinguishing characteristics.  

  • The network includes 260 diocesan and other affiliated immigration programs with more than 300 field offices in 47 states.
  • The network employs roughly 1,200 Board of Immigration Appeals accredited representatives and attorneys who, in turn, serve hundreds of thousands of low-income immigrants each year.
  • CLINIC represents more than 170 dioceses and religious communities that bring foreign-born priests, sisters, seminarians and religious laypersons to the United States each year.
  • CLINIC’s programs have helped more than 100,000 people apply for citizenship, helped approximately 12,000 refugees and asylees apply for green cards and have provided immigrants with over 15,000 hours of English language instruction.

More information is available at www.cliniclegal.org.

Pastoral Care of Migrants Refugees and Travelers

The Catholic Church's concern for people on the move expresses itself primarily in a ministry of pastoral accompaniment. Clergy, men and women religious, and lay leaders are involved in national, diocesan and parish efforts to provide pastoral outreach to people on the move. They are linked to the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church/Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers (PCMRT) in collaboration with national Catholic organizations devoted to providing for the pastoral needs to people on the move wherever they work and travel in the United States.   

  • Pastoral outreach to people on the move include airport workers and travelers, seaport workers and cruise ship employees and travelers, race car circuit workers, migrant farm workers, circus and carnival workers, and gypsies.
  • Airport Chaplaincy in Collaboration with the National Conference of Catholic Airport Chaplains (NCCAC) in 28 dioceses.
  • Apostleship of the Sea (AOS): 79 chaplains and pastoral team in 50 dioceses.
  • Migrant Farm Workers in Collaboration with the Catholic Migrant Farmworkers Network (CMFN): 127 diocesan contacts—mostly Hispanic ministry directors and leaders of migrant and rural groups.
  • Circus and Traveling Show Ministries in Collaboration with the Circus and Traveling Show Ministries Organization: 27 chaplains and pastoral teams.
  • PCMRT is also responsible for collaborating with race car drivers; horse racing workers; bull riders; gypsies; Irish travelers; truckers/truck stop ministry; and tourism, including the national parks, tourist centers, and workers in the tourism industry.

Pastoral Care of Migrant Refugees and Travelers reaches out to communities of recent immigrants through local parish ministries. These Cultural/Ethnic Communities  include:

  • 19 African communities: Burundian, Cameroonian, Congolese, Cape Verdean, Equatorial, Eritrean and Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Guinean, Ivoirian, Kenyan, Liberian, Nigerian, Rwandan, Sierra Leonese, Sudanese, Tanzanian, Ugandan, Zairean, Zambian.
  • 9 Caribbean communities: Belizean, Dominican, Grenadian, Guyanan, Haitian, Jamaican, Santa Lucian, Trinidadian, and Tobagonian.
  • 12 European communities: Croatian, Czech, French, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian.
  • Mayan
  • Brazilian

More information available at https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/cultural-diversity/pastoral-care-of-migrants-refugees-and-travelers/index.cfm