Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Newfound harmony between the Vatican and Caritas Internationalis

Calm has been restored to relations between Caritas Internationalis – the federation of Catholic charities – and the Vatican, starting with the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” which has the task of following their activities.

This was made evident this morning during a press conference for the presentation of a book on Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting with European volunteers, chaired by the “Cor Unum”’s President Cardinal Robert Sarah and Michel Roy, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. “We are overcoming the difficulties” of the past, the Guinean cardinal said.

The cardinal’s comment was in reference to the turbulent weeks that preceded the last Caritas Internationalis General Assembly last May. 

The day prior to the meeting, the Vatican Secretary of State had rejected the “nihil obstat” for the outgoing Secretary General, Leslie-Anne Knight to run again as a candidate for the post of operations manager in the organisation headed by the Honduran cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga.

The fact that he was not re-appointed caused a stir because he had received universal professional recognition for his excellent leadership during his four years in the position. 

The reason for the Vatican’s “no” vote was the reported lack of agreement between the Curia and the Secretary General, not so much with regards to doctrine or operations but in terms of method.

During the Assembly – in which Pope Benedict XVI had issued a strong warning to Caritas not “to fall prey to dangerous ideologies,” forgetting their “transcendent foundations” – Knight was succeeded by Frenchman Michel Roy, who had been director of lobbying and international campaigns for “Secours Catholique”, France’s Caritas.

“The collaboration that has always existed between “Cor Unum” and Caritas Internationalis was reinforced about a year ago,” Cardinal Sarah said referring to the arrival of the new Secretary General “and I am very happy about this.” 

“One cannot live in charity whilst fighting with one another; this destroys charity itself,” he added.

Roy was keen to stress that his first step as Secretary General of the organisation was to visit the Vatican “ministry” for charity, “our dicastery of reference.” “So far, relations have been harmonious,” he added.

Caritas Internationalis believes that an institutional review process begun in 2004 by John Paul II - with the conferral to the organisation of legal status as a body of the Holy See - is about to be completed. 

In a few days, the new statutes of Caritas Internationalis will be promulgated “ad experimentum” for a period of five years. The statutes will implement the organisation’s new role.

The voice of Caritas - probably the world’s largest Catholic network, with at least 500 thousand volunteers and a volume of aid estimated at two million Euro per year - is very important and has a global reach.

“Caritas Internationalis has been able to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church since 2004,” Mgr. Giovanni Pietro dal Toso, “Cor Unum”’s secretary said. Since then, a process of “ever greater clarification” as to what this implies has begun: “There was much that was not clear to us or to them.” 

“The Holy See has a strong interest in Caritas because it speaks about global issues and has a far reaching voice,” he added.