Vatican Cardinal warns of 'silent apostasy'; says Catholic charities must evangelize
ROME, May 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an address to the General Assembly of Caritas International today, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican dicastery dealing with the church's charitable institutions, stressed that the main mission of all Church groups, charitable groups included, was to bring people to Christ. "Today, dear Friends, the tragedy of modern mankind is not lacking clothing and housing. The most tragic hunger and the most terrible anguish is not lack of food," he said. "It's much more about the absence of God and the lack of true love, the love that was revealed to us on the Cross."
The assembly comes at a time of major restructuring for Catholic charities which especially in the West have been beset by loss of Catholic identity. Funding of questionable groups by the charitable arms of the Canadian, American, British, French and Austrian Catholic Bishops conferences have had many Catholics calling for change. While Bishops in these nations have been working toward reform, the Vatican is working to reform the umbrella group for them all - Caritas Internationalis. LifeSiteNews reported in February that the General Secretary of Caritas was not permitted to stand for a second term in office due to concerns about 'Catholic identity' among other issues.
Cardinal Sarah added, "Regarding coordination with the charitable organisations of the Church … it is not merely philanthropic and humanitarian assistance aimed at relieving a certain kind of distress, but also and above all it entails giving back to human persons all their dignity as children of God, and promoting an anthropology that also encompasses the religious dimension of human persons, namely their encounter with God."
Cardinal Sarah quoted both Popes John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI decrying the "religious indifference, secularisation and atheism" of the West.
"Together with enormous material, scientific and technological progress, the West is now experiencing a serious moral regression and a gradual "silent apostasy", he said.
"Undoubtedly, since the beginning of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has considered this 'religious indifference' and 'silent apostasy' as the major challenge the Church has to take up today in her relations with the modern world. Therefore, he is more determined than ever to make our minds more aware and our faith more visible and more active, in order to show the world that the Church's mission is deeply rooted in faith in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
While some in Catholic development agencies have argued for a hands-off approach of fostering good works undertaken even by agencies at odds with the Catholic Church to end the structures of poverty and oppression, the Cardinal took a different approach. "I believe it is important to understand that our charitable organisations are located within the Church and not alongside her," he said. "A Caritas that wasn't an ecclesial expression would have no meaning or existence. The Church cannot be considered as a partner of Catholic organisations. They are the organisations that take part in her mission."
A recent debate over whether or not groups in the developing world should have the approval of local bishops prior to their receiving funding from Catholic charities in the West seems also to have been answered by the Cardinal. "So it is necessary that charitable organisations are really able to work in full communion and deep connection with the local bishop," he said, "and in accordance with pastoral guidelines, in order to be fully integrated within the mission of the Church. "
See the full address here
ROME, May 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic aid umbrella organisation, Caritas Internationalis, continues to feel the heat from the Vatican for what many have identified as its shift away from its roots in authentic Catholic moral and social teaching, and towards a leftist political advocacy model. In his address to the 19th General Assembly of Caritas, Peter Cardinal Turkson, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, warned the Caritas officials again that their duty is to conform their activities to Catholic teaching. Quoting Pope Benedict's encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, Cardinal Turkson warned in his opening remarks, "There may well be danger of 'a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests'." The shift in direction of Catholic charitable organisations from concrete physical and spiritual works of mercy, to "advocacy", Cardinal Turkson said, is one of the main challenges facing Caritas and its member groups. In doing charitable work, he said, "No one is allowed …to appropriate the Church's authority for his opinion." Quoting Pope Benedict again, he said, charitable advocacy in a Catholic context "is not a means of changing the world ideologically." In the doing of charitable works, he said, real love, not mere professionalism, is required, and this love cannot preclude the possibility of true evangelisation. The cardinal warned against "excessive professionalism," and identified as one of the principal "challenges" to address, "proselytism in two senses: one, an abuse of the gratuitous charity we are called to offer; the other, an excessive caution about proselytism which would block legitimate and necessary evangelization." "The power of the Gospel calls us to be professional in every action, but it also expects us to be motivated by faith and values when we offer this service in the name of Jesus and of His Church." "Legitimate evangelization is not to be caricatured as proselytism," he said. "The task before us is to re-establish the 'link between evangelization and charity. The Church's charity is not directed solely at social progress, but wants to draw man toward God, the source of all good'." Cardinal Turkson pointed to Pope Benedict's definition of the first goal of Christian charity as the effort to meet the concrete material and spiritual needs of others: "Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc." Cardinal Turkson reiterated Pope Benedict's statement that Caritas would from now on be more closely monitored by ecclesiastical authorities: "The very legitimate activity of Caritas Internationalis in terms of advocacy unfolds within the policies and directives of the Holy See, at the international level, and of the local Episcopal Conference and local Bishops, on the national level." There have been many complaints in recent years about Catholic charities closely associating with and funding ideologically and politically leftist groups holding views strongly at odds with fundamental Catholic beliefs.Catholic charitable works cannot preclude evangelisation: top Vatican Justice and Peace official