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VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has released an apostolic letter on charitable activities that asks bishops to improve their supervision of local charities and ensure that these groups’ work does not contradict Catholic teaching.
The Pope’s six-page letter, released Nov. 1, notes the duty of the diocesan bishops and parish priests to see that in charitable service the faithful “are not led into error or misunderstanding.”
Bishops and parish priests “are to prevent publicity being given through parish or diocesan structures to initiatives which, while presenting themselves as charitable, propose choices or methods at odds with the Church’s teaching,” he said.
The Pope’s motu proprio letter, a document written on the Pope’s own initiative, gives new regulations on how to better organize the Church's charitable activities.
“I intend to provide an organic legislative framework for the better overall ordering of the various organized ecclesial forms of the service of charity,” said the Pope, referring to those organizations closely related to the ministry of the bishop and the “diaconal nature” of the Church.
“These works should always be welcomed by the Church's leaders as a sign of the sharing of all the faithful in the mission of the Church,” he added.
The Pope noted that the diversity of those initiatives is “a manifestation of the freedom of the baptized, who use their own unique gifts to respond to the call of charity.”
The Holy Father said that these initiatives must adhere to Catholic teaching, conform to the intentions of the faithful and respect legitimate civil regulation, adding that it is the bishops’ responsibility to ensure this.
“Above all, it's important to remember that practical actions are never enough,” he said.
“Charity must express a genuine love for people, a love animated by a personal encounter with Christ,” Pope Benedict said, warning that Catholic charities must avoid becoming “just another form of organized social assistance.”
“In carrying out charitable works, the Catholic organizations shouldn't limit themselves merely to collecting and distributing funds, but should also show special concern for individuals in need,” he continued.
“They should exercise a valuable educational function within the Christian community, helping people to appreciate the importance of sharing, respect and love in the spirit of the Gospel of Christ.”
The Pope had specific praise for Caritas, which works in disaster relief and in human development. He said that Caritas is an organization that has earned the esteem and trust of people around the world for its “generous and consistent witness of faith and ability to respond to the needs of the poor.”
“The bishop is to encourage in every parish of his territory the creation of a local Caritas service or a similar body, which will also promote in the whole community educational activities aimed at fostering a spirit of sharing and authentic charity,” he said.
The U.S. members of Caritas are Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities U.S.A.
Pope Benedict said there are charities that differ widely from each other, but are all “expressions of sensitivity and a desire to respond to the same pressing need."
Benjamin Wiker: Benedict XVI: Doctor of the Church
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Where’s the story on the Pope’s mandate on Catholic charities?
Catholic Charities makes tens of million dollars directly from the federal government to bring in Somali and other such totally barbaric refugees and put them down in the middle of Tennessee, Kansas and Minnesota etc. After 30 days these phony ‘refugees’ go immediately on the dole, open mosques, preach hate and Jihad and fill their communities with, fear, rape, crime while they bankrupt the taxpayer with their greed for hand-outs. They take jobs away from Americans. Catholic Charities has raked in a fortune of direct federal aid doing this ‘noble’ work of basically bringing these grotesque ‘new Americans’ here and then abandoning them to ‘our’ care in a few weeks. Why a Catholic organization would be so enamored of those who hate Christians openly and theologically is unfathomable.
Amen, I was praying that our Holy Father would weigh in as we quit giving to Catholic charities several years ago realizing our money was supporting Catholic hate groups like Planned Parenthood under the guise of helping the poor.
This article hits some of the highlights of the Motu Proprio, but one needs to read the entire document to realize how far-reaching this legislation is—for it is law, not just a “request to bishops.” It gives the bishops full Papal support in their fight against the HHS mandate. It reinforces the bishops’ right to deny charitable organizations of their Catholic identity should they engage in activities contrary to Catholic teaching. It demands that personnel employed in Catholic charities bring their own lives and convictions into conformity with Catholic doctrine, to avoid scandal. And an interesting point is made regarding salaries of those employed by Catholic charitable organizations—they are not to be exorbitant, rather in conformity with simplicity and similar to equivalent Diocesan positions. Does this mean religious working for hospitals cut back on their salaries? Should the bishops take a closer look at the CCHD fund?
I hope the Bishops will take the Pope’s letter seriously. Until the USCCB does a thorough house cleaning of Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, I will not give them a penny. It’s way past time to stop giving money to organizations that do not follow Catholic teachings on such things as abortion, contraception and same-sex “marriage” all in the name of “social justice”.
#1 All charitable operations sponsored by the Church and financed with money provided by Catholics should be viewed as apostolates of the Church and expressions of the Church’s mission to proclaim the gospel and evangelize the peoples.
#2 With #1 in mind, all charities operated by the Church need to employ practicing and faithful Catholics since their mind should be as one with the Church and oriented toward a fulfillment of Her mission.
#3 Since the motu proprio calls for the Church to disaffiliate from any group whose actions are antithetical to the teachings of the Catholic Church, bishops should insist that no future contracting with the Federal government is to be done - either by dioceses, parishes or agencies of the USCCB. This means that Church agencies will receive no funds from the government nor act as the government’s agent. Clearly, the federal government (and the individual States) in its juridical support of abortion and same sex marriage is acting contrary to the teachings of the Church, and we can and should no longer do business with them.
I hope they do something about CCHD. I don’t give to them or Catholic Relief Services. I just now give directly to charities I trust, such as my lcoal maternity shelter and to certain missionaries and priestly orgnizations such as Fathers of Mercy.
i am banned!
I won’t give Catholic Charities a penny. They have been exposed as “Anti-Catholic” hate organizations that support abortions and homosexual marriage. Most people have not been exposed to the truth and don’t know.
Two of the three founders of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development were DIRECTLY trained by Alinsky teachers in Alinsky tactics. Alinsky, the man who dedicated his world-changing book to… “Lucifer, the first rebel”. As they say, ‘connect the dots’.
One sentence into the article and CCHD immediately jumped to mind.
Every year I send emails to fellow parishioners and our pastor that document the abuses of CCHD. Except for a few bishops who refused to allow CCHD collections in their dioceses, this “charity” continues to scandalize myself an dother Catholics.
Our deacon is the Director of CCHD in the archdiocese where I reside. I’ve had it with social justice that refuses to speak for the unborn, traditional marriage, etc. I don’t understand where he’s coming from!!!
We do not contribute to the CCHD or CRS either. I don’t know if I will ever trust any umbrella charity that is supported by the bishops again after their past record of supporting groups like ACORN, etc. We feel much more comfortable donating to charities of our own choosing whose goals we share.
There are also some secular charities we have stopped giving to (i.e., Doctors Without Borders, who promote contraception and abortion in undeveloped countries).
On GHU’s comment on “social justice” (quotation marks definitely indicated). Whenever I hear the term “social justice,” I cringe. It’s a term made up by people who want to extract from the true church those activities which further a separate (and usually leftist, anti-Catholic, anti-human dignity) agenda. Justice is justice—there aren’t different forms of it. The idea we can compartmentize justice into “social justice” and “other” falls for the false idea that two “justices” can be at odds with each other. Sorry, it’s just not that way.
Anytime you hear so called Catholic charitable orgs using the term “social justice” and passing out literature that quotes or uses such ungodly anti-Catholic and rabid ideological Marxists writers like Saul Alinsky run! A group called Just Faith is infiltrating many Catholic parishes under the umbrella of “Social Justice” but is just siphoning off church donations & embedding themselves into budgets just to spread ultra-liberal ideology & carve out New factions. Judas was the one who wanted to sell the perfume to honor Christ Ostensibly to give to the poor (while plotting to betray Christ); and for that is bitterly known as The Patron Saint of Social Justice.
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