• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Catholic Charities USA, in a new national campaign, encourages people to be a good neighbor by becoming “a light in someone’s darkest moment.”

A neighbor is “more than simple geography,” but “how you show up in moments of need,” explains this :30 spot produced by Philadelphia’s J2 branding/creative agency and London’s Moth animation studio.

To do that, the campaign encourages people to visit PeopleOfHope.US to connect with a local Catholic Charities chapter. 

There are 169 of those across the U.S. which provide such humanitarian services as food and nutrition programs, affordable housing and disaster relief to vulnerable people, regardless of their faith or background.

One of those 169 chapters burst into the news last week when Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski penned an op-ed in the Miami Heraldcalling on the Trump Administration to review a decision ending a local Catholic Charities program that that has helped unaccompanied immigrant children for the past 66 years.

Funding for the program, which totaled $11 million in 2025, ended March 31, USA Today reported. Between that date and the date of the Archbishop’s op-ed, President Trump began attacking Pope Leo XIV on social media, leading to such recent headlines as Daily Beast’s “Trump Yanks Millions from Catholic Charities Amid Pope Feud.”

Catholic Charities USA, announcing the ad campaign this Tuesday, said it will include not only TV commercials, but targeted print ads, digital display, podcast ad reads, and sponsored emails. National media will include Catholic and Christian publications and Spanish-language outlets, the organization said. 

A first phase of the campaign will run through May, with additional phases planned for the summer and fall 

In addition to a “Find your Agency” feature, the campaign’s PeopleOfHope.US call-to-action site for “People of Hope: Faith-Filled Stories of Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” a museum housed in a semi-truck that began national tour in New York City late last month. Its aim: “to promote empathy and inspire visitors to find ways to serve those in need in their local communities.”

The museum, which features 42 video stories told by Catholic Charities staff and volunteers, is set to visit more than 150 locations over the next three years.

It’s funded by a grant of nearly $5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc., a private -- and separate -- foundation created in 1937 through gifts of stock from pharma company Eli Lilly