Cardinal Bertone says Caritas must not only tend to material needs

(May 23, 2011) “Today we are offered the chance to give thanks to the Lord for the organised charity of the Church and, more concretely, for the history, life and activity of Caritas Internationalis,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said on Sunday evening. He was celebrating a Mass in Rome inaugurating the 19^th General Assembly of Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of 165 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories of the world. The May 22-27 general assembly is marking the 60^th anniversary of the Caritas. Speaking in his homily, Cardinal Bertone conveyed the “Holy Father’s greeting and spiritual closeness” thanking all levels of Caritas – from Parish to international bodies – “for the promotion and implementation of Christian charity”. “The Church’s charitable activity, like that of Christ,” he said, “cannot be limited to meeting people’s material needs, even if sometimes such needs are most urgent and cannot wait”. “If humanitarian assistance were to regularly ignore the Christian identity and to adopt, so to speak, a ‘neutral’ style, a modus operandi aimed at pleasing everyone, then it would not render people a genuine service that is up to their full dignity, not even when its basic goals are attained”. In other words, “the Church should not only do charity, but do it ‘like Christ’”, Cardinal Cardinal added.