Photos provided by the Holy Cross Mission Center.
As the 2025–26 Twinning Year comes to a close, we celebrate another year of growing relationships across the Holy Cross family. Through the pillars of prayer, fundraising, and encounter, Twinning Partners continued to strengthen connections around the world.
Throughout the year, international Twinning Site Liaisons from Bangladesh, Chile, East Africa, Mexico, Peru, and Uganda prayed for their U.S. Twinning Partners, shared photos and updates, exchanged Christmas and Easter greetings, and explored ways to encounter one another through video conferences and immersion opportunities.
This year’s feedback highlighted a shared desire for deeper communication. Many U.S. and international Twinning Site Liaisons expressed enthusiasm for more regular conversations and virtual encounters with one another. These relationships help transform prayer and fundraising into personal connections, allowing communities to know and accompany one another across cultures.
Our U.S. Twinning Partners demonstrated remarkable commitment. Communities such as Duncan Hall and Alumni Hall at the University of Notre Dame, Lund Family Hall at the University of Portland, Christ the King Parish and St. Joseph Parish in South Bend, Indiana, St. Ignatius Martyr Parish in Austin, Texas, and Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles, organized leadership teams, promoted Twinning through social media and campus events, displayed Twinning materials, prayed regularly for their partners, and raised funds to support Holy Cross ministries abroad.
This year also brought several meaningful encounters. Duncan Hall students visited their Twinning Partner, St. Joseph’s Hill Senior Secondary School, in Uganda during Notre Dame’s spring break in March. After returning, the students hosted a presentation and reflection for the Duncan Hall community, sharing their experiences with the students and Holy Cross religious at St. Joseph’s Hill. HCMC Director Rev. Tom Eckert, C.S.C., Assistant Director Michael Jezewak, Outreach Coordinator Maria Kangapadan, Rector Nic Schoppe, and Priest in Residence Rev. Jim Lies, C.S.C., were in attendance at the event, where the immersion participants also wore matching shirts gifted to them by the St. Joseph’s Hill S.S.S. community. We are grateful to the residents of Duncan Hall for hosting this event and for sharing how their Twinning encounter impacted them.
Some of the communities were also visited by priests who are the Twinning Site Liaisons of their Twinning Partner community and students who visited their Twinning Partner during immersions. Rev. Armando Morales Trejo, C.S.C., from Parroquia Nuestra Madre Santísima de la Luz (Our Lady of Light Parish) in Mexico visited St. Ignatius Martyr Parish in Austin, a parish that often handcrafts rosaries to share with their Twinning Partner. Christ the King also hosted some members of the Notre Dame Men’s Boxing Club, Bengal Bouts, to share about their time in Bangladesh with the Christ the King community. During his visit to the United States, Rev. Subash Costa, C.S.C., from Corpus Christi Parish in Bangladesh, also visited Christ the King Parish, concelebrating their noon Mass on a Sunday during his visit in April.
The generosity of our Twinning Partners continued to make a lasting impact. One U.S. Twinning Partner raised more than $18,000 to support its international partner, and the Holy Cross Mission Center awarded matching grants of around $12,000 through the Bricklayers Matching Grant to registered Twinning Partnerships during the 2025–26 Twinning Year. In honor of the Congregation’s Year of Mission, the $2,000 Bricklayers Matching Grant was doubled in the 2025-26 Twinning Year. These grants incentivize fundraising efforts of registered Twinning Partners in the U.S. In this past Twinning Year, we also had two new Twinning Partners formally register under the HCMC’s Twinning Program.
St. Joseph’s Church in South Bend, Indiana, formally registered its relationship with Immaculate Conception Parish and School in Haiti through the HCMC Twinning Program. Although the partnership began in 2018, the Twinning Leadership Team chose to register in 2025 to participate in the HCMC’s grant reporting process and the $4,000 Bricklayers Matching Grant. St. Joseph’s Church has raised funds to support the construction of a new church building at Immaculate Conception Parish in the 2025-26 Twinning Year.
Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, also began a new Twinning Partnership with St. Joseph School in Zokhawthar, India. Educators Cole Hepp and Elliot Hersberger-Gray established the partnership to develop a service-learning course and connect with a Holy Cross ministry in the Province of Northeast India, whose priests have previously served at Cathedral High School. Holy Cross religious at St. Joseph School also minister to immigrants who have fled the civil conflict in Myanmar. We are grateful to these new Twinning Partners for their enthusiasm and commitment to Twinning.
We are grateful for the commitment of Twinning Partners as they identified and supported projects to strengthen the communities of their international Twinning Partners, including safe drinking water systems, rainwater collection, technical education, retreat programs, hostels, parish ministries, and healthcare initiatives.
Thank you to every Twinning Partner who dedicated time, prayer, and generosity this year. Your commitment continues to strengthen the Holy Cross charism through prayer, fundraising, and encounter, bringing our Holy Cross family closer together.
If your Holy Cross ministry, whether a school, parish, residence hall, athletic team, club, or another group, is interested in supporting a Holy Cross ministry abroad, please contact Twinning Program coordinator Maria Kangapadan (mkangapadan@holycrossusa.org) to schedule a discovery call.
Provided by Holy Cross Mission Center Outreach Coordinator Maria Kangapadan, July 2026.
