Spread the word: retired priests travel to parishes across the United States to rally support for the work of Catholic Relief Services

In his half-century of priesthood in the Milwaukee archdiocese, Fr. Paul Esser presided over scores of second collections. His finding: "No one ever returned to tell parishioners how the money they'd donated had been used."

Today the retired priest is doing just that. Four or five weekends each year, Esser gets in his car or on an airplane and travels to a distant parish to celebrate weekend liturgies and to preach about the work of Catholic Relief Services.

The 75-year-old priest has been to California, Indiana, Minnesota, and up and down the East Coast during the last three years. On these visits, "I try to spread awareness about CRS and let people know what a wonderful service it performs," Esser told NCR.

The Baltimore-based nonprofit works on behalf of U.S. Catholics to assist those in need overseas, providing emergency and disaster relief, and offering hope through development programs that promote human dignity and improve sustainable standards of living. Now in its 63rd year, Catholic Relief Services has grown from a helping hand for European victims of World War II to a global relief provider reaching 80 million people in 99 nations.

Four years ago, the agency launched its Parish Homily and Global Fellows program.

Designed to connect priests, deacons and Seminarians with those in need in developing nations, the program arranges for and lends visiting clergy to parishes where a single priest may serve two or more churches or is so understaffed that he cannot get away.

Men like Esser come to the rescue, pinch-hitting for the pastor--at his invitation--and linking the Sunday readings with Catholic Relief Services' outreach to the poor and to victims of natural disasters and of war.

"It's not a difficult fit," Esser said. "So often the scriptures are talking about 'You miserable rich people; you have to share.' "Esser's style is not to contrast the wealth of Americans with the poverty of Third World citizens. Rather he tries to tell the story of people in need and how Catholic Relief Services is assisting them.

Sri Lanka is a case in point. The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that struck the island nation killed 31,000 inhabitants. A further 155,000 or more died along the Indian Ocean shores affected by the massive undersea earthquake and subsequent wave attack. Some 42,000 remain missing in the region and 1.1 million were displaced.

"These people did not have to die had they had an early warning system," the priest said. Still, Esser marveled at how rapidly Catholic Relief Services was on the ground aiding victims.

The agency's speedy response relied on 40 years of experience in the region. "No need to fly in experts," he said. Catholic Relief Services, using its local partners and USAID assistance, had food and supplies en route within hours to Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand--all nations ravaged by the tsunami and places where Catholic Relief Services has long served.

In Sri Lanka, victims received materials to quickly erect 12-x-18-foot temporary shelters. Sri Lankans were given tools and paid for building their own houses--the first time most of them had ever gotten wages for work.

By April 2005 Esser was at the locus of the devastation in the costal city of Batticoloa. Along with six other American priests and Catholic Relief Services staff, he participated in an immersion tour, designed to help the Global Fellows acquire on-site knowledge of how Catholic Relief Services operates. The "organization has undertaken similar tours to Madagascar and Guatemala and plans immersion experiences in Rwanda, Cambodia and Central America in 2007.

The priest recalled meeting a local Jesuit, a Tamil, in Batticoloa, who told Esser: "I hate the sea. I hate this place." Esser said he could only listen and hug the priest who poured out his feelings of shock, grief and survivor's guilt four months after the deluge.

Despite the destruction and death caused by the tsunami, the event also served to bring the majority Buddhists into conversation with Hindus and Muslims. Only 8 percent of the country is Christian, but Catholic Relief Services supplies aid regardless of faith, Esser said.

Its overseas programs focus on agriculture, education, health, HIV/AIDS, emergency response, and small-business loans, but the agency tries to promote peace by addressing societal injustice and encouraging respectful relationships. Community projects, such as the building of shelters, can serve to ameliorate long-standing cultural and religious differences.

Getting Catholics in the pew to appreciate the work of Catholic Relief Services as an embodiment of the church's social teaching and to contribute to the work remain the goals of the Global Fellows, who now number 35 diocesan and religious order priests, six deacons and nine seminarians. Three seminaries--St. Mary's in Cleveland, St. Mary's in Baltimore and Mundelein in Chicago--have begun a three-year partnership with Catholic Relief Services and have sent seminarians on the trips to Madagascar and Guatemala.