Pope's New Apostolic Letter on the Service of Charity

December 01, 2012: “The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments and exercising the ministry of charity. These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable”, said Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday in his Apostolic letter ‘Motu Proprio’ that is, on his own initiative - on the Service of Charity.

The new papal document highlights some requirements which organizations of charity established by the Church, and issued regulations to better organize the charitable activity. The Motu Proprio, focuses in particular on the duties that belong to the diocesan bishop in this field. Among them: that the supervision of charitable organizations that are canonically subject and also those who actually work in his Church, to co-ordinate with respect for their identity, the activities of the various organizations, to watch over them with the selection and training of personnel, to ensure that the charitable initiatives linked to the Catholic Church are undertaken within the framework of civil and canonical law.
The service of charity, says the Pontiff, is a constitutive element of the Church’s mission and an indispensable expression of her very being. All the faithful have the right and duty to devote themselves personally to living the new commandment that Christ left us. They are to offer our contemporaries not only material assistance, but also care for their souls. The Church is also called to the exercise of the diakonia of charity, whether in the small communities of particular Churches or of the universal Church. This requires organization “if it is to be an ordered service to the community”, an organization which entails a variety of institutional expressions.

“in conformity with the episcopal structure of the Church, the Bishops, as successors of the Apostles, are charged with primary responsibility for carrying out in the particular Churches” the service of charity, Pointed out the Pope referring his earlier encyclical.
He noted that “the Code of Canon Law, in the canons on the ministry of the Bishop, does not expressly mention charity as a specific sector of episcopal activity”. There was a need to fill this lacuna and to give adequate expression in canonical legislation to both the essential nature of the service of charity in the Church and its constitutive relationship with the episcopal ministry, explained the Pope.
The new papal document intends to provide an organic legislative framework for the better overall ordering of the various organized ecclesial forms of the service of charity, which are closely related to the diaconal nature of the Church and the episcopal ministry, the Pontiff added.
The Church’s charitable activity at all levels must avoid the risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance. The organized charitable initiatives promoted by the faithful in various places differ widely one from the other, and call for appropriate management. The Church’s Pastors should always welcome these initiatives as a sign of the sharing of all the faithful in the mission of the Church; they should respect the specific characteristics and administrative autonomy which these initiatives enjoy, in accordance with their nature, as a manifestation of the freedom of the baptized.

However, there is a need to ensure that they are managed in conformity with the demands of the Church’s teaching and the intentions of the faithful, and that they likewise respect the legitimate norms laid down by civil authorities.
Dated 11 November 2012, the decree comes into force on 10 December 2012.