Archdiocese of Chicago says it's raised $20 million for COVID-19 relief

The Archdiocese of Chicago and Catholic Charities announced Monday they have jointly raised a historic $20 million for COVID-19 relief efforts in Cook and Lake counties.

The fund is one of the largest U.S. Catholic relief responses to COVID-19 and is being deployed to assist thousands of people without regard to their faith, racial, ethnic, or gender identities, officials said.

Sixty percent of the $20 million has been deployed to Catholic Charities to significantly increase assistance to individuals and families in need. The assistance includes food and housing support, burial aid for victims of COVID-19 and domestic violence counseling and prevention measures. Forty percent has been deployed to other assistance efforts, including emergency scholarships for Catholic school students and support for Kolbe House, the archdiocese's inmate re-entry ministry and other critical efforts.

"In these days of Thanksgiving, I am grateful to the many donors giving witness to the Catholic tradition of Corporal Works of Mercy that calls us to come to the aid of our brothers and sisters in need during this historic crisis," Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said in Monday's announcement.