Photo courtesy CRS

The first 5,000 of temporary shelters provided by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are arriving in the Philippine city of Cebu as this MCC Update is sent to you. CRS plans to distribute 32,000 of these shelters in its initial response to Typhoon Haiyan. The typhoon generated winds of 200 miles and cut a 30 mile wide swath of destruction across three of the Philippines' islands on November 8.

The shelters include a tarpaulin and materials to construct an A-frame to hold it up. There is enough room in the shelters for a family of five. CRS will be supplementing the shelters with kits containing hygiene and household items. Experts believe that over 500,000 homes are uninhabitable and unrepairable because of the typhoon.

In an interview published September 30 in America magazine and other Jesuit journals around the world, Pope Francis reflected on role of the Church as healer and binder up of wounds:

This week the Missouri Bishops, along with several other religious/civic organizations, sent Governor Nixon a letter asking for clemency for Joseph Franklin. Mr. Franklin is sentenced to be executed on November 20, 2013, for the murder of Gerald Gordon in 1977.

The clemency application reiterated the Catholic Church's long opposition to the use of the death penalty because it disregards the dignity of human life and continues a cycle of violence.

The Missouri bishops issued a statement today expressing their disappointment with Governor Nixon's decision to allow same sex couples married in other states to file joint tax returns in Missouri, stating that the Missouri tax code should not be used as a means of re-defining marriage in the Show Me state. Click here to read the statement.

Rural Missouri continues to set the pace in collecting voter signatures in support of the Children's Education Initiative (CEI), the proposed constitutional amendment that would provide assistance to K-12 children no matter where they attend school. This week, for example, the MCC received notarized petition pages from Queen of Peace parish in the little town of Ewing in the northeast corner of Missouri.  

Some questions have arisen as to whether the Children's Education Initiative (CEI) will allow donors to allocate their donation to a particular school's foundation. The answer is yes. For example, if you donate to the scholarship fund of Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City, then 100% of your donation will be earmarked to provide scholarships for students to attend Helias. A person could donate 100% of their donation to a diocesan-wide foundation that provides assistance to Catholic school children throughout the diocese. Finally, a donor could allocate 100% of their donation to a foundation that provides assistance to a local public school. All of these donors will be able to claim a tax credit for 50% of the dollar amount of their donation.

Some may be confused because, prior to tax credits being allocated to local foundations, the Missouri Commissioner of Education will divide the total tax credits of $90 million available annually for three broad purposes: 50% for public schools, 40% for nonpublic school scholarships, and 10% for assisting special education programs. Foundations will apply within one of these three categories to market the tax credits locally. For example, a public school foundation will apply to market tax credits within the public school category.

Therefore the local foundation will be providing 100% of its assistance to its stated mission, such as providing scholarships to attend Helias Catholic High School. Furthermore, the donor can be assured that 100% of their donation will be used to provide scholarships to attend Helias Catholic High School.