In 2025, the Church celebrated the Jubilee Year of Hope. To celebrate the Jubilee Year and live out the diocesan vision of Courageously Living the Gospel, the Diocese of Saint Petersburg launched the 1,000,000 Acts of Mercy Challenge. This initiative invited parishes, schools, diocesan entities, and individuals across the diocese to complete corporal and spiritual works of mercy and log them online. By the end of the Jubilee Year of Hope, the challenge had nearly an extraordinary two million acts of mercy recorded.  These works of mercy were offered as a spiritual bouquet to the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.

Thanks to the generosity of the Catholic Ministry Appeal and two faithful donors to the Diocese, Bishop Gregory Parkes was able to award grants to 31 parishes, schools and diocesan entities to support continued or future ministry and works of mercy. The entered works of mercy served as the “grant application” for parishes and schools to receive a grant. Ten of the top-participating schools, parishes, and diocesan entities were honored at the luncheon at Bethany. Bishop Parkes recognized each top participant, shared their accomplishments, and presented grant recipients with checks and recognition certificates for Courageously Living the Gospel. 

Grant recipients were recognized in several categories, including top small, medium and large parishes and top elementary and high schools. Among diocesan schools, the top elementary schools were the Cathedral School of St. Jude with 16,829 acts of mercy and Guardian Angels Catholic Interparochial School with 14,687 acts of mercy, who had the top elementary youth participation. The top high school was St. Petersburg Catholic High School, logging an impressive 24,125 acts of mercy. The top overall parish in the diocese was St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, with a whopping 345,208 acts of mercy offered. 

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church distinguished itself with the highest youth participation, coming in at 50,726 acts of mercy by parish youth (in addition their adult participation). 

“Our vision is to keep this going, providing people with more ways they can spread kindness and the Gospel message through volunteering in such services as our food pantry, becoming a Vincentian, serving at Masses, and bringing the Holy Eucharist to the homebound,” shared Gail Metcalf, team leader of the Charity Pillar at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. 

“Acts of kindness-smiling at others, making meals, driving people to appointments or to church, visiting the elders; these bring joy to others,” she continued.

The top diocesan entity was Spirit FM 90.5 with 74, 902 acts of mercy logged. “What the Million Acts of Mercy Challenge really revealed is that we’re already living these out almost every day. We just don’t always realize that what we’re doing are acts of mercy,” shared Maria Pendleton, host of the Spirit FM Morning Show. “On the Morning Show, Davis and I get to pray with our Spirit FM family each hour, lifting up so many people and intentions in prayer. It’s thousands of listeners walking with one another, supporting and encouraging each other in real time. It’s honestly an amazing thing to be part of.”

Although the 1,000,000 Acts of Mercy Challenge has officially concluded, the impact of this initiative and these acts will continue to bear fruit into the future. “[The Challenge] was really a way of trying to teach and live the Gospel, but also to inspire,” shared Bishop Gregory L. Parkes during an interview with Spirit FM’s John Morris. “The hope is that even though we’re not going to be counting them this year, the faithful will still engage in performing acts of mercy towards those most in need.”  

St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Trinity spoke to their continued commitment to practice both the spiritual and corporal works of mercy on a daily basis. They plan to give their grant to their Caritas Ministry serving the poor and most vulnerable among us. St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Clearwater, St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Holiday and St. Patrick Parish in Largo were also recognized by Bishop Parkes as top parishes who Courageously Live the Gospel.

To view photos of the luncheon, click the arrows below.

The grants awarded were made possible in part through donations to the Catholic Ministry Appeal. To learn more about the appeal and how it supports ministries of mercy within the Diocese of Saint Petersburg, or to make a gift, visit www.dosp.org/catholicministryappeal.