Ralph W. Beiting

Monsignor Ralph W. Beiting (January 1, 1924 - August 9, 2012 ), founder of the Christian Appalachian Project and a Roman Catholic priest, was born and raised in northern Kentucky. He began dreaming of helping people in Appalachia help themselves out of poverty in 1946 when, as a seminarian, he accompanied several priests on preaching trips to the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The oldest of eleven children who grew up during the Great Depression, Ralph Beiting was no stranger to need, but the soul-shattering poverty he observed in Appalachia planted the seeds of a vision that eventually became the Christian Appalachian Project.