Everything is Gift: See the Impact of the 2026 Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal
From Catholic schools and family ministries to outreach for those in need, the 2026 Impact Report shows how gifts to the Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal are helping people encounter Christ and strengthening the Church across Northern Colorado.
When Archbishop James R. Golka launched his first Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal this spring, he invited Catholics across Northern Colorado to begin with a simple truth: “Everything we have is a gift from God.”
Now, several months into the 2026 campaign, the new Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal Impact Report offers a glimpse of what happens when that gratitude becomes generosity.
The Appeal has now reached 73% of its 2026 goal, thanks to over 13,000 Catholics supporting ministries that form disciples, strengthen families, educate children, support clergy and seminarians and care for neighbors in need. Those gifts are already making a tangible difference.
More than 8,800 students are being formed through Catholic schools. Catholic Charities has distributed over 575,000 meals. The St. John Vianney Lay Division celebrated 300 new graduates from its Biblical and Catechetical Schools this year, including the first graduating class of the Spanish Biblical School. And families attending camps at Annunciation Heights spent a combined 694 hours in Eucharistic Adoration.
But the Impact Report also makes clear that the Appeal is about more than numbers. Behind every statistic is a person, a family or a community encountering the love of Christ.
Finding community at Samaritan House
When Kara Collidge joined a parenting class at Samaritan House, she only expected to pick up some new strategies for raising her teenage son. But she also found a community.
Operated by Catholic Charities of Denver, Samaritan House locations in Denver, Fort Collins and Greeley provide shelter, meals, counseling, case management and other support for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Through support from the Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal, programs such as six-week parenting courses help families build healthier relationships and give parents a place to encourage one another through difficult seasons.
“It built a community,” Collidge said. “Before the class, if I saw another mom sitting by herself in the cafeteria, I probably would’ve just walked by. Now we sit together. We check on each other.”
For Collidge and the other mothers, the relationships lasted beyond the class itself.
“It gave us tools,” she said, “but it also gave us each other.”
Making room for the next generation
The impact can also be seen in Catholic classrooms. This October, students at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic STEM School in Wheat Ridge are entering a new expansion built to serve a growing school community.
The project includes seven new classrooms, a chapel, an interior courtyard, a counselor’s office, an updated nurse’s station and other improvements. Yet school leaders say the most important part of the expansion is what will happen inside those spaces: children learning, praying, building friendships and discovering who God is calling them to become.
“It’s going to really enable us to serve many more families,” said Sr. Ines Sandoval, O.C.D., the school’s principal. “Teachers will be able to give more individualized assistance to their children.”
Parent Amy Mintz put it more simply: “This is just a really special place for our kids to be, surrounded by people who love Jesus and people who love them.”
From gratitude to generosity
Together, these stories reflect the theme Archbishop Golka introduced when the Appeal launched in April.
“Every blessing: our faith, families, parishes, resources and opportunities, come from his loving hand,” he wrote at the time. “When we recognize that all is gift, our first response is prayer.”
That recognition, he continued, leads naturally to stewardship, giving back to God from what he has first given us. The 2026 Impact Report shows what that stewardship looks like in practice: a mother finding support in a difficult season, a teenager encountering Christ before the Eucharist, a woman finding her way home to the Church and a Catholic school making room for more children to learn and grow in faith.
With the Appeal now 73% of the way to its goal, there is still an opportunity for Catholics across Northern Colorado to take part in that work and help sustain the ministries serving the Church throughout the archdiocese.
To see more from the 2026 Impact Report or make a gift to the Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal, visit archden.org/impact.
