Church's charities worldwide
are immense but difficult to quantify,
says Cor Unum president
Translated from the Italian service of
February 1, 2013
The relationship between faith and charity, at the heart of Benedict XVI's Message for Lent this year, was also the focus of the news conference Friday morning at which the message was presented.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, cited the immense charitable work that the Church does worldwide, and announced a new mission in Jordan to coordinate Catholic aid to the peoples in the Middle East, especially refugees from Syria. Benedetta Capelli has this report:
The commitment of the Church in favor of the poor, victims of war, families in difficulty, and sick people is impossible to quantify, Cardinal Sarah said, pointing out more than once that faith and charity are two faces of belonging to Jesus and following him.
In 2012, he said, Benedict XVI asked Cor Unum to help in emergencies that involved some three million and a half persons in a concrete demonstration of his closeness to those who suffer in the world.
"In the Church, there are at least 165 Caritas national organizations around the world and are federated in Caritas Internationalis. The work of the Church for the disadvantaged is immense," Sarah said.
An idea further developed by Mons. Segundo Tejado Muñoz, under-secretary of Cor Unum. "Many ask us why we do not publish statistics of the work done by the Church... It is impossible. The great strength of our work is in volunteer work which is for the most part anonymous. Indeed, Christian charity is often anonymous. Or, we could provide some figures, but as the Pope said in the recent motu prlorio Intima
Ecclesiae Natura, the true identity, the true nature of charity is in the life of the Church - in her parishes, in Christian communities, among individual Christians, who live practising charity and often anonymously. If we give any figures, they will be merely approximative".
[I don't think even the detractors of the Church would dispute the fact that the Church through various organizations does considerable 'humanitarian' work around the world - they just prefer to ignore it because they believe nothing good has come or can ever come out of the Church.]
Journalists asked questions about the recent motu proprio on 'the service of charity', and Cardinal Sarah said it underscored the commitment of Benedict XVI to clarify some normative aspects of charity work.
"The Holy Father has noted that a commitment from the bishops has been lacking. So he decided to illustrate the work and commitment expected of a bishop in promoting charitable activities in his diocese and parishes, and to involve the entire community. The lack of involvement by the local bishop in charity work can also lead to activities that do not truly express the identity of the Church."
Cardinal Sarah said he will be making another trip to the Middle East on February 19-21, specifically to Jordan, where he will meet with King Abdullah and representatives of Caritas MONA (Medio Oriente/Nord Africa) to discuss what can be done about the difficult situation in Syria.
"We are now in the phase of providing concrete help to refugees from Syria who have mostly fled to Lebanon and Jordan. We have to discuss what needs to be done considering that it is the winter season. The refugees need warm shelters, food and medicine".
Michael Tio, general president of the International Confederation of the Societies of St. Vincent de Paul, also spoke at the news conference about their work in 148 countries, where they ha e 780,000 active members and 1.3 million volunteers serving around 30 million people in the neediest situations.
He said Christian charity was love for God transformed to service to others.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/02/2014 18:16]