2011-05-26 16:43:59

Michel Roy, elected Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis


Caritas Internationalis has approved Michel Roy as its new secretary general for the next four years. Caritas representatives chose Roy with a majority of votes during the General Assembly on Thursday 26 May. Roy is currently international lobbying and advocacy director for Secours Catholique (Caritas France). He will follow Lesley-Anne Knight who was Caritas Internationalis secretary general from 2007-2011.

Speaking to Vatican Radio immediately after the election, Roy praised the work of his predecessor: “I am first of all grateful to the members of the confederation who elected me, to succeed Lesley Ann Knight in this very important work that Caritas network is doing in helping to change the life of the poor at grass-roots level as well as the global level and my thoughts are going to the small Caritas organisations and to the new ones, to those that are facing problems, who will be the priority of our work so that the network is strong everywhere and able to carry out its mission”

Q: What are the challenges for the years to come?

“The challenges are put in the frame of the strategic plan that we have adopted here. Its about the reinforcement of the humanitarian response of the Caritas network to the victims of man made or natural disasters. Secondly the promotion and coordination of the integral human development work which is the base of all Caritas organisations. How together we can reinforce our work in animating the poor so that they can take their lives in their own hands and move forwards. The third priority the third axis is around advocacy for a better and more just world. We are facing with the crisis that we are going through now major challenges and we see that the world is dominated by finance. We want to turn that world upside down and put the human being back at the centre. The poor have to be our inspiration for that. And the fourth priority is to improve and bring forth the coordination, access and communication among the members, so that each member participates in the promotion of the mission of the whole network”.

Roy will serve as secretary general alongside Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. Cardinal Rodriguez from Honduras wasre-elected for a second term as Caritas Internationalis president this week.
Roy has thirty years experience working for Secours Catholique in France. He began by working for the diocesan officein Paris in 1981.
He has worked on global governance, improvingdevelopment financing, promoting peace and lobbying extractive industries throughmembership of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)Governing Board and Coordinator of the French Publish What You Pay initiative. Listen RealAudioMP3








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