GREENSBURG — The diocese will sponsor a single collection the weekend of Nov. 19-20 to help people around the world and close to home.

The collection supports the Diocesan Poverty Relief Fund (DPRF), which adds to the diocese’s material assistance efforts for people in need in the diocese’s four counties: Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland. The collection also supports Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief effort.

Half of the total contributions will remain in the diocese to support the DPRF, and the other half will support CRS.

CRS helps people in need around the world. Ninety-five percent of all donations go directly to programs that help relieve the pain and suffering of those people.

"This year we continue to hear the plight of many families in Haiti, as well as the people suffering in the Sudan. Somalia and Kenya are graveyards for those dying of disease and starvation," Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt said in a recent letter to priests.

The DPRF collection replaced the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection in 2010. Bishop Brandt announced the new fund and collection at the Communities of Salt and Light dinner April of 2010 and said the Board of Trustees of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg would oversee the program.

"We have tremendous needs locally, and this change allows our diocese to decide exactly how the poverty relief funds will be spent," Bishop Brandt said in his letter. "It also assures parishioners who make generous contributions to the diocese that they are helping their neighbors right here in southwestern Pennsylvania."

The grant application deadline for December funding was Nov. 1, and Msgr. Raymond E. Riffle, managing director of Catholic Charities, said the application review will begin next week.

"The Diocesan Poverty Relief Fund allows the diocese to respond to requests for assistance from a wide range of qualifying organizations," he said, including groups that provide material assistance to people in need.

Diocesan Poverty Relief Fund grants will only go to groups that have values consistent with the ethical, religious, moral beliefs, tenets and teachings of the Catholic Church and that do not promote in any way activities that violate the dignity of the human person, Msgr. Riffle said.

"The generous people of the Diocese of Greensburg have always been respected for standing tall in their efforts supporting the poor, both at home and abroad," Bishop Brandt said in his letter.