About Glenmary

Glenmary Home Missioners, legally incorporated as The Home Missioners of America, a 501(c)3 organization, is a Roman Catholic religious community of priests and brothers devoted to recruiting, training, sending and supporting missionaries for the rural and small-town areas of the United States where the Church is undeveloped or underdeveloped. Glenmary serves under the jurisdiction and at the invitation of the local bishop or archbishop.

History: Glenmary Home Missioners was founded in 1939 by Father William Howard Bishop, a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to serve what he termed “No Priest Land, USA.” He noted that more than one-third of the counties of the United States, mostly in Appalachia and the South, had no resident priest. Father Bishop foresaw that this area—then as populous as Canada, as large as Mexico and covering one-fourth of the United States—could be lost to the Church unless this vast priestless “home mission” area was recognized by and designated a specific ministry of the Church.

Father Bishop found a patron in Archbishop John T. McNicholas of Cincinnati. Under the archbishop’s patronage, Father Bishop started a society of priests and brothers working together to serve the home missions. The name Glenmary is derived from Glendale—the Cincinnati, Ohio, suburb where the group’s headquarters was located until 1971—and Mary, patroness of the society.) The Home Missioners of America received pontifical recognition as a Society of the Apostolic Life in 1962.

Ministry: The role of the Glenmary missioner is to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to be a sign and servant of that Kingdom. Glenmary serves in counties where less than three percent of the population is Catholic and where the poverty levels are twice the national average. Therefore, much of Glenmary’s ministry is ecumenically oriented and performed without regard to race, creed or economic conditions. Today, Glenmary priests, brothers and coworkers are active in 14 dioceses: Birmingham (Ala.), Cincinnati (Ohio), Covington (Ky.), Jackson (Miss.), Knoxville (Tenn.), Lexington, (Ky.), Little Rock (Ark.), Nashville (Tenn.), Owensboro (Ky.), Raleigh, (N.C.), Richmond (Va.), Savannah (Ga.), Tulsa (Okla.) and Wheeling-Charleston (W.Va.).

Mission Services: Glenmary missioners and coworkers minister in Appalachia, the South and the Southwest by establishing the Catholic Church and helping meet the spiritual and material needs of people in these regions. Their ministry takes many forms: radio programs; chaplaincies of hospitals, prisons and colleges; outreach to the unchurched, preferably in conjunction with other Christian Churches; Bible schools; social outreach, including building houses for the poor, running day camps, setting up thrift shops and food pantries, promoting industrial development; sheltered workshops for the handicapped; recruiting, training and placing volunteers; working with community organizations (such as schools, social service agencies, civic groups, local governments) to organize senior citizen programs, recreation for youth and meals-on-wheels and alcoholism programs.

Financial Guidelines: Glenmary Home Missioners is a nonprofit religious organization completely dependent on voluntary contributors. All donors receive the quarterly magazine Glenmary Challenge. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent of the law. Glenmary is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Click here to review the most recent Glenmary financial report.