“You shall be witnesses unto me to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
–Acts 1:8
The Mission Helpers are missionaries. They go where God calls them and do what God asks them to do. Each of the Sisters brings the mission to life in her own unique way—following her special call from God.
A.W.E. began in 2011 when a young Afghani woman arrived in Baltimore a few days before Christmas—friendless, homeless, destitute and eight months pregnant. She found a home with Benedictine Sisters, and her story captured the hearts of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart along with seven other religious communities in the area. Soon there were asylees living at Mission Helper Center and A.W.E., the organization created to help women seeking asylum in the United States rebuild their lives and their spirits, spent it’s first years at the Mission Helper Center.
“These are women of incredible courage,” says Sr. Liz Langmead, the first Mission Helper liaison between the Community and A.W.E. “They have left everything and everyone they have ever known to come to a strange land. But their lives were in such danger that leaving was the only possible thing to do.”
A.W.E. provides transitional housing, companionship and community to asylum seekers by offering a safe and nurturing home, opportunities to connect within the larger community and each other. In addition to housing, A.W.E. offers employment skills training and educational programs such as English as a Second Language (ESL), hospitality, a food bank, a clothing “store,” individual and group therapy, and referrals to legal, medical and mental health services.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has about 1350 members, who represent nearly 80 percent of the approximately 45,600 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, the conference assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.
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We are a network of women religious, spiritually diverse millennials, and allied thought partners, working to create a more just, equitable, and loving world. Reading the signs of the times and walking together, we are finding a common call to incubate new forms of community rooted in love and committed to justice.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore, established as a diocese in 1789, comprises the City of Baltimore and Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard and Washington Counties. Additional information is found below.
The Catholic Center is located at 320 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
Learn more about the Archdiocese of Baltimore