Mother Teresa’s lifelong devotion to caring for the poor and sick inspired millions worldwide, and her holy example lives on in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

A benefactor was deeply moved by a story about how a sister with the Missionaries of Charity told Mother Teresa one day that there was not enough food in the kitchen to feed those begging at the door. She was instructed to go pray, and not long afterwards they were blessed with a large donation of food.

That testament of faith led the donor to establish the Mother Teresa Fund for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The fund provides emergency financial assistance to needy families and individuals for utility bills, medications, food and other expenses such as when an old furnace or water heater suddenly breaks down.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will create a $2 million endowment fund providing about $100,000 annually to the Mother Teresa Fund at Catholic Charities, directly helping those in desperate need.

“We connect people with their neighbors so everyone in the pews can answer their Christian call to serve one another,” said Susan Rauscher, executive director of Catholic Charities. “One client told us recently, ‘Everyone looks down at you, but Catholic Charities reaches down and gives you a hand up.’”

The Mother Teresa Fund made an impact during the bitterly cold winter that was an inconvenience for most of us but life-threatening for the homeless. The sub-zero temperatures prompted Catholic Charities to open the Susan Zubik Welcome Center as a warming station from January through March.

The agency recorded more than 2,300 visits, served some 3,000 meals and handed out 1,500 coats, hats, scarves, gloves and other items. One woman who came in shivering from the cold and received assistance, wrote this note of thanks:

T – is for Taking time out for us;
H – is for having a warm Heart;
A – is for All the things you do in a day;
N – is for Never turning away;
K – is for Keeping everyone warm;
S – is for saving our lives in one way or another.

“To be a servant means to think first of Christ and others, and second of ourselves,” Bishop David Zubik wrote in his pastoral letter, The Church Alive! “Every single one of us is called to servant leadership. To embrace that call is to help the Church of Pittsburgh be The Church Alive!”

The fund has helped thousands of our neighbors. It paid for a wheelchair-accessible ramp for a senior citizen who was homebound and isolated. When Catholic Charities’ clients have suddenly lost their ability to cover the cost of prescription medicine, the agency has been able to help them until they can be tied into a drug assistance program.

“We look to leverage money from the fund by partnering with someone doing the labor on a project or providing materials at-cost,” Rauscher said. “The added campaign funding will be a huge boost and give us a lot more flexibility.”

The Corporal Works of Mercy help us show charity toward others—to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! provides a tangible way to perform many of these good works.

Mother Teresa put it simply.

“Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.”