Caritas as a counterculture to the globalization of indifference

» CONFERENCE COLLECTION JULY 2014

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE A COLLECTION OF PAPERS FROM A CARITAS CONFERENCE: ‘ABOUT THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY’, 2-4 JULY 2014, THE NETHERLANDS

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

INTRODUCTION 100 YEARS OF CORDAID: 100 YEARS OF CARITAS IN THE NETHERLANDS

When in 1914, because of the outbreak of the First World War, thousands of Belgian Refugees fled their country to find shelter and protection in the Netherlands, Catholics in the Southern part of the Netherlands understood the call for compassion and started a program for reception of these refugees. Parishes organized local committees, asked families to make space for these refugees and organized the collection of food and clothing. Right after the war, the committees continued their work and broadened the scope: children from hunger stricken Germany and Austria were invited to come over for a period of recovery because of undernourishment and other physical problems.

In 1924 at the Eucharist Congress in Amsterdam, the first initiative for an international network of Catholic Caritas agencies was launched. Pius XI, in 1928, gave it the name ‘Catholic Caritas’.1 It remained active until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1940. In 1951, this initiative was renewed under the inspiration of then Cardinal Montini who became pope Paul VI in 1964. Caritas Internationalis was founded and the Dutch were among the thirteen national organizations that were the founding mothers of this international network.

In 2014 Cordaid celebrated its 100 years as a celebration of 100 years of compassion and solidarity that started with ordinary people in parishes and neighborhoods who understood that caritas is at the heart of their Catholic identity. And throughout these 100 years, the organization could continue thanks to the commitment of people who, often in silence and unnoticed, showed their compassion and solidarity.

In these 100 years, Cordaid (and its predecessors Mensen in Nood, Memisa en Cebemo) has gone through deep changes and transitions. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Netherlands was one of the countries with the largest number of missionaries going to Africa, Asia and Latin America to proclaim the faith and to contribute to the well-being and development of people. When the Dutch government started its development cooperation program, the network of Catholic agencies and missionaries proved to be a strong pillar of this new governmental program.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s the organizations were affected by the secularization of the Dutch society and the deep social and cultural changes in our society. Cordaid remained a Catholic organization, connected to the international Caritas network.

Until today, Cordaid is one of the largest members and contributors to the Caritas Internationalis network. During the last 5 years, Cordaid supported 49 emergency appeals of Caritas Internationalis and maintained relations with 23 national Caritas agencies all over the world.

Cordaid celebrated this 100 years with its supporters (324.000) in the Netherlands, but the 100 years of commitment to the international network were also a good reason to celebrate this jubilee together with our international colleagues. From 2-4 July 2014, 64 guests from all over the world came together in the Netherlands to live the diversity and the richness of our international Caritas network. Each day started with a celebration of the Eucharist and closed with a prayer or a song.

This liturgy gave the conference a strong spiritual foundation.

These were days of sharing and inspiring and to reflect on where we are in the history of Caritas and what are the challenges we are facing in a rapidly changing world.

This collection shares the richness of this gathering and makes it available for all those who share with us the spirituality of caritas.

Simone Filippini CEO Cordaid

1 Denis Vienot, Caritas, subject of Charity in the Church, in: Deus Caritas Est, Acts of the World conference on Charity, page 27 edited by Cor Unum.

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

CONTENTS A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 CARITAS AND CATHOLIC PRESENCE IN THE WORLD TODAY by Prof. Dr. Erik Borgman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 PRESENTATION: ABOUT THE ‘MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY’ by Prof. Dr. Erik Borgman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 THE COMMITMENT OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA AND THE EXERCISE OF CHARITY by Fr Pierre Cibambo. . . 13 CARITAS IN THE ASIAN CONTEXT AND PERSPECTIVE by Prof. Peter C. Phan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CARITAS IN LATIN AMERICA by Fr P. Joseba Segura

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INTERVIEWS by Frank van Lierde and Lotte van Elp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 S.O.S: SPIRITUALITY OF SOLIDARITY Fr Cedric Prakash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 PASSING ON THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE Dr. Benedict D’Rozario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 CARITAS AND THE CORPORATE CULTURE OF RISK AVERSIVENESS John Ashworth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 “LIVE AND STAY WITH THE PEOPLE YOU SERVE” Theo van den Broek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 “DIALOGUE IS NOT ABOUT SITTING AND TALKING TOGETHER” Elga Sarapung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 “CARITAS MEANS THAT PEACE IS GREATHER THAN VIOLENCE” Fr Augusto Zampini. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 AN ESSAY ON CARITAS AS THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY By René Grotenhuis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

CARITAS AND CATHOLIC PRESENCE IN THE WORLD OF TODAY

BY PROF. DR. ERIK BORGMAN

1. Caritas as a problem

Photo Frank van Lierde

In our contemporary societal and political debates, caritas has become a problem. This is so, the hypothesis is here, because of the way caritas is conceptualized. Caritas is considered to be something additional, an ‘extra’. It is generally taken for granted that caritas would not be necessary if society would function well. Caritas is seen as additional support for those who cannot properly support themselves, either because there is a problem in the mechanisms of society or because certain persons or groups lack something they need. As a conse­ quence, the political debates focus on whether people needing caritas did really end up there by no fault of their own, whether the measures that are proposed will really solve their problems and to what extent society can afford to help those who cannot help themselves.

Prof. Dr. Erik Borgman

In fact, society here is imagined as a contract of those indi­ viduals who have something to offer in order to increase their benefits. This automatically defines those who are weak, poor, old or sick as lacking what it requires to be a valuable part of society. In spite of all talk of human rights and inherent human dignity, people are ranked according to their perceived value. In the current view, caritas is only a marginal correction of this view. We should, the general idea is, have compassion and pity with people who temporarily are not bringing in any additional value to society through capital or labor.

However, this should be temporary. As soon as possible they should again bring in their fair share. This is exactly why aging is perceived as such a grave problem. It involves a request for help that cannot be framed as an investment for a future benefit. Costs will only get higher and the elderly will not produce added value in the future.

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It is important, therefore, to develop a different view on caritas.

The tradition of Catholic Social Thought can be read as con­ sidering caritas an integral and essential aspect of being human. Deus Caritas Est is not by coincidence the first sentence of the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, after 1 Jn. 4:16.

Human beings are created in the image of God and their natural eros is intrinsically directed towards agape (see Deus Caritas Est, no. 3-8). According to this tradition, caritas is not in the first place a difficult virtue that should be kept alive against the human tendency to selfishness, but an inclination of human nature. It is also not something that can or cannot be added to society, as a nice but not necessary additional quality.

Society comes into existence and is maintained because people are inclined to caritas. Living together in community as brothers and sisters is caritas incarnate (cf. Caritas in Veritate by Pope Benedict XVI, no. 19).

In the conference we will develop this view on the mutual dependence of society and caritas. The common functionalist view, in which society is imagined as a contract for mutual benefits leaves a lot of aspects of human sociality incompre­ hensible. Many theories that are used to legitimize and evaluate activities by organizations dedicated to caritas, share in the functionalist approach to society. Analyses should be made of the extent to which this is the case and in what sense this is problematic.

To consider others valuable for what they are and wish them well because of it, is the very core of caritas.

In contrast, an image of society will be constructed in which the inclination of people towards caritas is an integral part.

Ultimately, people strongly value other people and want to be valued by them: they want to make a difference to others and they want others to value them as making a difference because of what they are. In other words, they want to participate in giving and receiving caritas. To consider others valuable for what they are and wish them well because of it, is the very core of caritas. People naturally desire to participate in it.

Which is of course not to deny we often do not want to live with the uncertainty this desire for caritas brings us in.

Caritas requires recognition of one’s dependence on what others can only freely give: appreciation and commitment.

This dependence on the logic of the gift is highly unsettling (cf.

Caritas in Veritate, no. 34). This unsettlement is what we tend to avoid, for instance by fantasizing that we participate in society by means of a mutual, if necessary enforcable contract.

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Photo Frank van Lierde

maintain a decent and safe society (Summa Theol. II-II, q. 23, a. 8; cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 207). It is revealed in narratives that invite creative interpretation and imitation. Through these narratives, differences should appear as invitations to widen caritas, not as possible or even neces­ sary limits to it. Not so much the abstract idea of the equal dignity of all people should constantly be communi­cated, as is the tendency now. Instead, it should be shown how the world exists in an unending plurality of connections that unite concrete people in relations of mutual interest and responsibility.

Prof. Dr. Erik Borgman during his presentation at the conference

2. Caritas as human connection ‘The relationship between God and man is reflected in the relational and social dimension of human nature’, states the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (no. 110). And quoting from the documents of the Second Vatican Council, it goes on to say how the human being is in fact not a solitary being, but ‘a social being, and unless he relates himself to others he can neither live nor develop his potential’ (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, no. 12). This approach opens up the concept of caritas and makes it the foundation of being human. It clarifies how love for others, expressing itself in the desire that all will be well for them, is ultimately limit­ less. This comes to light, over and over again, but that goes often unnoticed. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus does not so much instruct his disciples what to do, but he tells us what he sees happening and should be valued and imitated.

Connections are made via caritas beyond the usual social boundaries, because the predicament of the other is recog­ nized as concern of one’s own. In recognizing their funda­ mental dignity as threatened and violated, others are spiritually and conceptually made participants of the community. From there, it is logical to help them to become full participants, sharing the benefits and being seen as essential for the community. Through caritas we built communities that helps us and others to blossom.

The world exists in an unending plurality of connections that unite concrete people in relations of mutual interest and responsibility.

As an implication of this, caritas should not so much be seen as a principal to implement. It reveals itself, as Thomas Aquinas states, as ‘the form of the virtues’ that are needed to

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It is not that we in the West should help Africa because its people are poor and we are rich. The point is that for us as a community – in which the people in Africa are part just as much as we – the quality of all our lives depends on our ability to make caritas the foundation of our connections.

As it is said in the Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council Gaudium et Spes, in Jesus Christ it is revealed that ‘the new command of love was the basic law of human perfection and hence of the world’s transformation’ (no. 38; cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 54).

For Caritas organizations this insight leads to the utmost restraint in the instrumental use of images and figures.

As experience shows, this leads to cynicism, which is the opposite of caritas. Instead, Caritas organizations would commit themselves to refraining from propaganda and self-promotion and make it part of their mission to stimulate trust in the desire of people to live in caritas. At the conference we will explore what this would mean and debate exemplary cases.

3. Role of Caritas organizations In this line of thinking, Caritas organizations do not position themselves as problem solvers who, for example, bring bread where there is no bread or health care where health care is lacking. The commitment to do these things can on occasion be an expression of caritas. However, caritas itself exists in involve­ ment and solidarity. The central task of Caritas organizations is enhancing and strengthening commitment, and the opportu­ nities for people to be and to become connected to and involved in the lives of others. In other words, hunger and disease should be a shared concern, not a problem for one party to which the other party knows and owns the solution. Caritas can never be limited to introducing people to an expertise they are now lacking (encyclical Populorum Progressio [1967] by Pope Paul VI; cf. Caritas et Veritate [2009]). To take away the power from people to define their own problems in order to solve them more efficiently is counter to caritas. It refuses the concern for concrete people and their predicaments, which is its very core (cf. the encyclicals Mater et Magistra [1961] and Pacem in Terris of Pope John XXIII).

This is directly related to the situation and the future of the Caritas organizations, and to the debate on what ‘quality’ means in the work of such organizations. The key here is to bring the caritas aspect more to the center. Central are com­ mitment and relationality and the building of a global society founded on recognition of dignity. Help in the sense of trans­ port of goods, knowledge or competence from one place to another can be a medium, but never the goal.

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

At the conference, the relational aspect in the work of Caritas organizations will be made clearly visible. Because what is at stake is first of all a different framing of the practice of the organizations, we will analyze a case from the past in order to show how commitment has always been the driving force, not the need for help and the capacity to supply it.

4. Caritas in interreligious cooperation Ultimately, what is at stake is a new understanding of the relation between Christian faith and caritas. As Pope Francis writes in the encyclical Lumen Fidei (2013):

Faith is born of an encounter with God’s primordial love, wherein the meaning and goodness of our life become evident; our life is illumined to the extent that it enters into the space opened by that love, to the extent that it becomes, in other words, a path and praxis leading to the fullness of love (no. 54).

Thus caritas is the expression of the non-objectifiable conviction that it is worthwhile to have a committed relation to people who are different.

Everybody has something unique and irreplaceable to offer and caritas is the attempt to enable others to really offer it.

The idea that our society is not complete if not everybody has the opportunity to contribute to it in his or her own term is fundamentally a matter of belief. The Christian tradition endorses this belief by insisting that every person is, in his or her special way, an image of God and the outcome of history will be the full revelation of who God is. This clarifies that society is optimal when it brings everyone to his or her right, and vice versa, bringing everybody to his or her right is the way to optimize society.

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A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Every person is, in his or her special way, an image of God and the outcome of history will be the full revelation of who God is.

At the conference, the theological point is to clarify how according to Christianity the commitment to the well-being of people in its profanity is also deeply religious. God gives himself as a space of love, God gives us our lives as an oppor­ tunity to contribute to the blossoming of the lives of others and thus to embody his love. On the one hand, this mission is fully religious in the sense that it means obeying God’s will.

On the other hand, this mission is totally profane in the sense that it is wholly committed to other people and their well-being. Loving thy neighbor for his or her own sake is in and of itself the fullest expression of loving God, according to the Christian tradition. This view will be elaborated in all its consequences in debate with the often expressed idea that caritas, in order to be fully Christian, should be motivated by the desire to serve God in imitation of Christ.

This enables Christian and Catholic Caritas organizations to collaborate without any restraint with all people of good will, as the traditional expression is. Whether of a different religious conviction or none, all people committed to the well-being of others show themselves to be true images of the God of love, to which Christians are committed. Christian and Catholic Caritas organizations can not just be open to collaboration, they will be actively interested in the way those from another background explain the reasons for their practices in terms of their religion or worldview in order to learn from them. At the conference, examples of this kind of interreligious co-operation will be presented and evaluated, both as a way to strengthen caritas and as a means to further good relations between traditions and to contribute to religious peace.

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A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

ABOUT THE ‘MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY’ PRESENTATION

BY PROF. DR. ERIK BORGMAN

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PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

INTRODUCTION

Caritas International is a confederation of 165 members, which represent some 3000 diocesan Caritas agencies, who represent tens of thousands of Caritas groups in local parishes.The confederation represents an enormous diversity. Caritas is always an answer to ‘(t)he joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted’. The diverse historical and geographical context is the reality of people. Therefore Caritas, although inspired by the same spirit of love and compassion, cannot provide a uniform answer, but has to understand this context in its response. Diversity is the richness of Caritas by broadening the perspective, it is the power of Caritas by enhancing the mutual learning.

In preparation of the conference, Cordaid invited three people, knowledgeable about Caritas, to reflect on the position of Caritas on their continent. Without pretending that these three papers have covered the diversity of the organization, it was important to start the reflection with a clear picture of this diversity and the challenges Caritas agencies are facing: ▪▪ Fr Pierre Cibambo wrote the paper about Caritas in Africa ▪▪ Prof. Peter C. Phan wrote the paper about Caritas in Asia ▪▪ Fr Joseba Segura Echezarraga wrote the paper about Caritas in Latin America.

These papers were an invitation for curiosity about each other’s reality and triggered the dialogue and conversation in a real spirit of complementarity and learning.

René Grotenhuis, Former CEO of Cordaid

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PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

THE COMMITMENT OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA IN THE EXERCISE OF CHARITY

BY FR PIERRE CIBAMBO - ROME / KINSHASA

I am honored and I am grateful for the opportunity that I am given to join in this Cordaid centenary celebration and to be part of the sharing and discussion about our today’s mission as Caritas, thus Church, called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps; He who came, so that they may have life and have it to the full (John10:10).

Cordaid has a long history of humanitarian and development work in various parts of the world, in support to local Church’s and Civil society’s initiatives to address the many social, cultural, economical and political challenges that continue to negatively affect many people, especially in Africa.

This event is taking place at a moment when the universal Church, in whose mission we share, is blessed by the person and the ministry of Pope Francis. His election to the Seat of St Peter has been perceived by many in the Church and outside as a sign of time, a moment of grace, ‘a Kairos’, a time for change and conversion for a Church which is called and sent, not only to preach the good news and to do it with joy (Evangelii Gaudium), but also to be the good news for the poor by serving, accompanying and defending them (Pope Francis, Visit to Centre Astaldi for refugees, Rome 10 Sept. 2013).

Our focus for this event is on ‘Living the Mystique of Fraternity’. I can only see this initiative as an opportunity given to all of us to foster our common understanding of ‘who we are’ and ‘what we stand for’. It’s an occasion for a renewed commitment for Cordaid and the entire Caritas family as we strive to fulfill our specific mission in the Church by attending to the poorest, assisting in humanitarian emergencies and helping to spread charity and justice in the world in the light of the Gospel and the teaching of the Catholic Church (Cf. CI, Statutes, art1.3).

My contribution will focus on the Church in Africa in her mission to be in service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace (Cf. Africae Munus). I shall highlight how the Church in Africa needs to be creative in the context of the New Evangelization and how the spirit of communion and fraternal cooperation has become the milestone on the journey of fraternity and solidarity. It goes without saying that this particular Church needs not only to be creative, but also to be supported and accompanied by the rest of the universal Church and to work in partnership with other Civil Society Organizations in pursuit of the common good and the dignity of all humanity.

1. Living the Mystique of Fraternity 1.1 Catholic Social Teaching: our common asset The primary role of the Church is to express the unconditional love of Christ, for the poor in particular, through the practice of charity. This is part of the evangelical identity and fundamental mission of the Church whose Magister has recently

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Photo Lotte van Elp

Introduction

Fr Pierre Cibambo

put a strong emphasis on the exercise of charity, pointing out without ambiguity that commitment to human promotion and action for justice that is inseparable from charity (Cf. Caritas in Veritate), is at the heart of the Church’s nature and mission (Cf. Motu Proprio, Intima Ecclesiae Natura).

Pope Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi insisted that the need to address the problems related to justice, liberation, development and peace in the world is essential for the credibility of evangelization nowadays (Cf. EN. n 20).

On his part, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that the two pillars of evangelization are ‘Confessio and Caritas’, which he said are “like the two ways in which God involves us, makes us act with him, in him and for humanity, for his creation (Cf. Benedict XVI, Meditation during the first general congregation, XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, On the New Evangelisation for the transmission of faith, 8 Oct.2012).

1.2 Church and Charity: Church as the source of charity Addressing the members of the Representative Council of Caritas Internationalis, Pope Francis confirmed the teaching of his predecessors and said, “Caritas is a vital part of the Church. Without charity, there is no Church. And Caritas is the Church’s institution of love, where the Church institutionalizes herself in Caritas” (Message to CI REPCO members, May 2013).

Since his election to the Seat of St Peter, he has been calling for a poor Church for the poor, asking world leaders to take action to end inequality and indifference towards those who are suffering discrimination, human trafficking, waste, etc.

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To stress on the Church as the source of charity, Pope Francis reminds us that the Church and her various structures are not merely NGOs, however efficient they might be! Obviously one shouldn’t read into such statement any contempt or mistrust of NGOs. The Pope is simply and clearly recalling, as his predecessors did, that the Church is a community of love. It is in fact Trinitarian Love, and God himself, who gathers his people in a unique ecclesial communion, by practicing charity, through the Church – the visibility of His love for mankind.

“If you see charity, you see the Trinity,” says Pope Benedict XVI, quoting Saint Augustine (DCE n.19). Thus, the work of charity gets its source from the Church which herself takes inspiration from the gospel values.

Here, I am advocating for a positive and constructive approach to the ecclesial identity of Caritas. I believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that the identification of Caritas with the Church is perceived as a strength, an added value in our efforts to reaching out to the poor, to serve them, to accompany them and to defend them as Church, following in Jesus’ footsteps, for it is his charity that urges (2Cor5:14).

1.3. Charity needs to be organized: the role of Caritas Internationalis The Church is entrusted with a triple mission, that is proclaiming the word of God (kerygma), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia), duties that presuppose each other and are inseparable, if the Church is not to be deformed (Cf. DCE 25). Furthermore, insists Pope Benedict: “For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being” (DCE 25a).

The service of charity must be organized to be efficient.

Caritas Internationalis and all its members are an expression of the organized charity of the universal Church, since charity needs organization to be an ordered service to the community (Cf.DCE.n.20).

The practice of the mystique of fraternity should animate and guide our work, a work to be performed with humility, dedication, abnegation, professionalism that goes with the “formation of heart” (DCE n.31), bearing in mind that serving the poor is serving Christ who identified himself with them (Mt 25).

What is expected from those engaged in Caritas mission is to be “credible witnesses to Christ”, not to engage in whatever could be considered proselytism” (Cf. Deus Caritas Est n.31c).

The extra that Caritas agents should bring can be summed up in a story that you might have heard about already.

It’s from Bam in Iran, a zone which was struck by the earthquake in 2003.

It speaks louder than any rhetoric. An old Muslim lady asked a Caritas worker for a Bible. The reply was “We can’t do that.

Caritas does not proselytize. But you are Muslim, why do you want one?” The old lady replied: “I want to see what inspires you people from Caritas to treat us with such love and respect.”

Thus, no matter the origin of our particular humanitarian and development program, treating people with dignity has to be at the center of our concerns. This is to be done by sharing not just our skills, money and talent but first and foremost our humanity and, in doing so, we rediscover what it means to be human.

Caritas’ mission is to recognize the human face of Christ in the poor.

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PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

2. Caritas in Africa: Charity at work 2.1 Animating and mobilizing Christian communities The Church in Africa is a growing Church, defining herself in the post-missionary period, wherein it has to build its African identity. This identity is built in a context of contrast: modernity and tradition; a fervent faith and religious culture in a context of extreme poverty and conflicts. I believe that the major challenge of being Church in Africa today is how to be an instrument of dialogue in the day to day life and how to build a united and reconciled society; how to go beyond the ethnic or tribal diversities and to foster communion and fraternity among the people of God, witnessing the true faith in the activities of the daily life.

The instruments of charity in such context become means for dialogue and legitimacy to work for the poor and for the transformation of unjust structures. For example, in a country like Mauritania, the Church has no official legal status, but Caritas does, so the Church operates under Caritas Mauritania’s legal status!

The key mission of the Church in Africa is to witness the universality of the Church in her service to the poor by living the gospel values and put them into practice.

The recognition of the Church and its role as a major social actor, especially in African context confronts her with the moral obligation to serve, to accompany and to defend the poor with dedication, care and competence to ensure quality and accountability in all her endeavours, as it’s clearly stated in the Post-Synod Exhortation “Africae Munus” , On the Church in Africa in service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace” (Pope Benedict XVI, Nov. 2011), which constitutes together with the previous one “Ecclesia in Africa” (John Paul II,1994), the theological and socio-pastoral frame­work and also a concrete agenda for the evangelization mission of the Church in Africa, today and for the many years to come.

The key mission of the Church in Africa is to witness the universality of the Church in her service to the poor by living the gospel values and putting them into practice. In this mission, the faithful with their fervent faith should be the major actors.

The African bishops, when they met in Kinshasa in November 2012, agreed that the animation of the communities is also the work of Caritas, a means to build communities of solidarity, reconciled communities. This is one of the socio-pastoral missions of Caritas in Africa which must be nurtured. As the Caritas network it is our role to accompany such processes.

2.2 The characteristics of African society: a real strength One of the traditional characteristics of the African society is natural solidarity, that is, within the community, the members, by nature are inclined to help each other, support one another at times of difficulties. Traditional solidarity has always existed in our society and people share their food and any scarce commodity they have.

If anybody comes to the village, the first thing we do is to receive them warmly, offer something to eat and drink, and only then do we ask where they come from and the purpose of

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their visit. This is a natural gesture of solidarity which pushes us to go towards the others and assist them.

My personal experience of Caritas work in Africa dates back to the time when I was a young boy in my village, more than 50 years ago. I used to see my mother with other women of our small Christian community working together, putting money aside to help those in need, organizing prayers and masses for the sick, contributing towards medical bills for those facing difficulties, providing family shelter to children whose parents were dead, cultivating the fields of those who were sick to prevent them from food shortage and hunger, sending contributions to the parish to support welfare initiatives at diocesan and even national levels, etc. Adult males and the youth did the same. We were not rich, but we helped each other, we were united. We shared the little that we had imitating the gestures of the early Christians mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

Such initiatives at the community level continue today in various forms: participation in works of common interest and in local development initiatives; assistance to refugees and displaced persons, promotion of human rights, including economic and social rights, etc.

The strength of Caritas is to be at hand everywhere, at any time, before, during, after, in the farthest corners, where are neither cameras nor newscasters.

When Rwandan refugees swept the City of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo from April to August 1994, there was no foreign humanitarian organization in the first place.

At the call of Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa, who was murdered in Bukavu on 29 October 1996, the Christian communities were mobilized. Money, food, clothes, etc., were collected to alleviate the sufferings of many among the most vulnerable refugees, including many unaccompanied children and the elderly.

This is what makes the strength of Caritas, to be at hand everywhere, at any time before, during, after, in the farthest corners, where there are neither cameras nor newscasters, often around a small village church, where people gather to hear the word of God, celebrate the Eucharist and pray in communion with the universal Church.

The question here is: how does the Church use this quasi natural attitude to motivate people towards sharing of resources, solidarity, dialogue, conflict resolution, justice and peace. These natural attitudes should become the foundation for the people to organize themselves and to be self-reliant wherever possible.

2.3 A time for a new imagination of charity (Cf. Novo Millenio Ineunte n.5) For the Church in Africa, it is time for a new imagination of charity as said John Paul II, in his Pastoral Exhortation Novo Millenio Ineunte (2001). But let us, in the first place do justice to this Church by recognizing the importance of her work in order to journey with her in support to her social pastoral ministry.

In many countries in Africa, the Church plays an irreplaceable role in the delivery of social services, for example, in the health

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

Photo Lotte van Elp

PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

Fr Pierre Cibambo during a workshop at the conference

and education sectors. In The Democratic Republic of Congo, 40% of health services and more than 50% of education services are under the care of the Catholic Church. Local Churches in the Sahel region have been instrumental in fighting hunger, malnutrition, desertification, etc. Many Church leaders have strongly taken up the cause of the poorest and the oppressed and voiced out without fear the unjust life conditions imposed on people. The Bishops who met in Kinshasa in November 2012 paid tribute to the memory of all the martyrs of charity, including many missionaries, who have sacrificed their lives in the course of relief operations at home and elsewhere in the world (Cf. The Kinshasa Declaration, Nov.2012).

The emergence and development of the Civil society movements which are contributing to the democratization process in many African countries is partly to the credit of the Church.

Most of the Civil society leaders in Africa were nurtured by the Church, and the small Christian communities constitute, even today, the place where the expression of faith goes together with diaconia or care for the poor and the needy.

The Church and Caritas as her socio-pastoral instrument have greatly contributed to the social transformation of Africa, though there is still a long way to go and a lot of challenges remain to be addressed.

A new imagination of charity requires from the Church in Africa to pursue with courage its prophetic role, by fighting corruption, promoting good governance, combating unjust structures, training new leaders, accompanying them, encouraging those who are working for the good of all.

We should not be fatalistic about poverty in Africa. It is not a given! It’s true that, most African countries have gone through difficult phases in the relatively recent past that includes the colonialism, neo-colonialism and now globalization. Let me say it again: Africa continues to experience major development challenges associated with poverty, civil wars/ethnic conflicts, endemic diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS, famine, poor governance and Refugees and Internally displaced persons.

Of course, Africa is diverse and we are starting to see some hope for a number of countries where human development and democracy are becoming a reality. However, most of Africa continues to experience famine, evitable diseases and oppression.

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Yet, Africa is not a poor continent; it is endowed with abundant natural resources, a rich complex of minerals oil and gas deposits, beautiful flora and fauna. According to United Nations Environmental Program, Africa accounts for about 10 per cent of global freshwater resources, 17 per cent of global forest cover, a quarter of mammal species and a fifth of bird and plant species (UNEP, 2006).

Africa is diverse and we are starting to see some hope for a number of countries where human development and democracy are becoming a reality.

How can the Church and Caritas further and better contribute to the improvement of the human flourishing in this continent? For example, what can be done to ensure that natural resources of which the continent is abundantly blessed are managed for just and sustainable development of all?

Allow me to reminisce the work of Cordaid over the last 100 years in Africa, in supporting projects and programs geared towards poverty reduction, support during major emergencies, promotion of human development, work for justice and peace, advocacy for good governance and democracy, etc. I must say that Cordaid can be proud of what has been achieved with their contribution. It is time to develop more synergies, learn from the positive and less positive experiences and identify priorities areas for renewed commitment in support to local actors, especially the local Caritas.

2.4 Fraternal cooperation, a way to live the mystique of fraternity Africa has a tradition of receiving well wishers and friends with open arms. At the same time there is a need to forge a common wisdom of collaboration, mutual respect and understanding.

One of the major challenges for those engaged in social and development work alongside the African Church and local communities, is fraternal cooperation.

This includes taking into account the intercultural dimensions of development and accepting differences. During their meeting in November 2012, in Kinshasa, the African Bishops were very vocal in calling for fraternal cooperation and in expressing their concerns with regards to the relations with some of their partners.“The commitment of our respective Churches alongside the poor is well known, they said. It is unacceptable that we are sometimes offered help with conditions that humiliate us and infantilize us.

We invite one and all to show us their Christian solidarity in a spirit of cooperation and fraternal communion” (Kinshasa Declaration, Nov. 2012).

This fraternal cooperation should enhance professionalization in the exercise of charity in Africa through constructive dialogue, togetherness, intercultural understanding and capacity building to better serve the poor.

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Conclusion I would like to conclude with three important key points.

▪▪ As Caritas we are a service of the Church called to live charity according to the gospel values, which should animate and guide us.

▪▪ In Africa, the Catholic Church and Caritas are instruments of dialogue and witnessing in society, taking up the cause of the poor and downtrodden.

▪▪ On the path of modernization and modernity, the African continent has been at the heart of various external forces, political, social and economical, which have wounded it and let it on the way side of development and modernity.

Our mission as Caritas is to position ourselves as the good Samaritan to accompany and defend the poor so that they may contribute to the transformation of their society by taking their destiny into their own hands. This is our main challenge for fraternal cooperation with Africa and the Church in Africa.

Once again I thank Cordaid for having given me this opportunity to share with you a few ideas on how we can be Caritas together, how together we can be more.

One of the major challenges for those engaged in social and development work alongside the African Church and local communities, is fraternal cooperation.

Some References Populorum Progressio – Paul VI – 1967 Evangeli Nuntiandi – Paul VI – 1975 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis – John Paul II – 1987 Post Synod Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa – John Paul II – 1994 Apostolic letter, Novo Millenio Ineunte – John Paul II - 2001 Deus Caritas Est – Benedict XVI – 2005 Caritas in Veritate – Benedict XVI – 2009 Motu Proprio “Intima Ecclesiae Natura” on the service of Charity – Benedict XVI, 2012 Post Synod Exhortation Africae Munus – Benedict XVI, 2011 Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium – Pope Francis, 2013 United Nations Environmental Program (2006). Africa Environment Outlook Report United Nations Development Program (2013). Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of the South, New York, United Nations Development Program The Kinshasa Declaration – Caritas Africa – Nov. 2012

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CARITAS IN THE ASIAN CONTEXT AND PERSPECTIVE

BY PROF. PETER C. PHAN - GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, USA

Photo Lotte van Elp

A centenary of an institution such as Cordaid / Caritas Neerlandica is an occasion for joyous thanksgiving to God for its accomplishments as well as sincere repentance of its failures. It is also a time for a communal self-examination to discern God’s will for its future and to chart a way forward.

Though not associated with Caritas in any capacity, I would like to offer some general reflections, from an ethic standpoint as it were, on how the various contexts of Asia might present both challenges and opportunities for its mission, projects, and activities.

Prof. Peter C. Phan

The Contexts of Asia Because of Asia’s geographical vastness and the extreme diversity of its peoples, it is impossible to make general statements that would be true of all its countries and its peoples. Every characterization of Asia dies the death of a thousand qualifications. Nevertheless, it is useful to highlight the following seven key features of Asia as we ponder the future work of Caritas in this continent.

▪▪ Immense geography. With 17.21 million square miles covering 8.7% of the Earth’s total surface area and comprising 30% of its land area, Asia is the largest continent and a land of extreme contrasts.

▪▪ Enormous population. Approximately 4.3 billion people, about 60% of the world’s current population, live in Asia, with an extremely dense demographic concentration in its megalopolises. Of the world’s first 10 megacities with a population in excess of 10 million, eight are located in Asia.

Moreover, one particularly worrisome aspect of Asia’s demographic explosion is that in the next few decades, populations will double or nearly double in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Laos, countries with the lowest income levels in the world.

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▪▪ Overwhelming poverty. Despite the presence of some economically developed countries such as Japan and the so-called Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Republic of Korea/South Korea, and Taiwan) and despite the recent dramatic rise of China and India as global economic powers, Asia still remains mired in widespread and dehumanizing poverty, with some of its countries being the poorest on Earth (e.g., North Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar/Burma, and Bangladesh). The causes of poverty in Asia are of course many and diverse. Some of these are temporary natural disasters, and the victims can be helped with the assistance of organizations such as Caritas.

Other causes of poverty in Asia are of systemic nature and cannot be remedied by acts of charity and relief services but can only be removed by abolishing existing unjust sociopolitical, economic, legal, and even religious structures.

In this connection it is to be noted that the process of neoliberal economic globalization with its twin demands for liberalization and deregulation is deeply ambivalent.

While it has no doubt raised the economic standard and improved the living conditions in several Asian countries, in particular India, it has also aggravated the condition of poor people and of poor countries, especially the poor people of poor countries.

▪▪ Steady migration. Demographic flows, both internal and international, have been a widespread phenomenon in Asian countries, most of which function as countries of origin, and some as countries of destination (and often as transit migration countries too). Since the 1990s the major growth has been in migration within Asia, particularly from less developed countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines to relatively more developed countries such as those of Northeast Asia (Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) and those of Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand). In addition, there have been large migratory flows within each Asian country, that is, internal migration, mostly from rural areas to cities.

▪▪ Political heterogeneity and Communist regimes. In addition to having the largest democratic country, namely India, Asia is also the home of three remaining Communist countries of the world, namely China, Vietnam, and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), and several countries struggling to transition from military dictatorship or single-party State to democratic forms of government and from socialist economy to market economy.

▪▪ Cultural diversity. Asia is a tapestry of extremely diverse and ancient cultures and civilizations. Whereas West Asia and Central Asia are permeated by the Arabic-Islamic cultural values, South Asia is shaped by the Indic culture, and Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia by the Sinic culture, with the exception of Malaysia and Indonesia where the Islamic culture dominates.

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▪▪ Religious pluralism. Asia is the cradle of all world religions.

Beside Christianity, other Asian religions include Bahá’í, Bön, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism, and innumerable tribal and primal religions. Contrary to the once-regnant secularization thesis, according to which religions tend to disappear with the coming of modernity, and despite the numerous attempts by atheistic regimes to crush religious organizations, Asian religions, including Christianity, have recently experienced a widespread and vigorous renascence. Of course, there is also a dark side to this religious revival in the form of fundamentalism, sectarianism, fanaticism, and even violence.

Caritas in the Asian Context

Various documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) often portray the Asian context under three categories: economic poverty, cultural diversity, and religious pluralism. To meet their challenges, the FABC urges that Christian mission in Asia be carried out in the mode of a triple dialogue, with the Asian poor people through liberation, with Asian cultures through inculturation, and with Asian religions through interreligious dialogue. These three dialogues are intimately intertwined with each other and must be undertaken in tandem, since one is not effective and complete without the other two. Furthermore, the local community, made up of both laity and clergy, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the primary agent of this triple dialogue, and not outside theological experts or ecclesiastical authorities. Lastly, this triple dialogue requires and facilitates a re-thinking and reformulation of fundamental theological articulations of the Christian faith (not faith itself!) in the process.

Caritas cannot carry out its mission effectively without a serious and extensive engagement with Asian cultures and religions.

The mission of Caritas, as I understand it, is more concerned with the first dialogue, that is, economic assistance to developing countries, than with the other two. Nevertheless, just liberation cannot be separated from inculturation and inter­ religious dialogue, the members of Caritas cannot carry out its mission effectively without a serious and extensive engagement with Asian cultures and religions.

This is a bold claim, and perhaps unconvincing to those who view economics apart from culture and religion. Such a methodological separation among this trinity of realities might be feasible in the West where economics and politics are by and large walled off from culture, and especially religion, at least since modernity. However, this is not the case with Asia.

If this be true, then acquisition of aptitude and skills for inculturation and interreligious dialogue must be an integral part of the intellectual, affective, and spiritual formation of the members of Caritas.

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One of the major, and controversial, developments in missiology in light of the triple dialogue is that Christian mission is no longer seen simply as mission or evangelization to nonChristians (missio ad gentes) but also, and primarily, work for the reign of God among non-Christians (missio inter gentes) and with non-Christians (missio cum gentibus). This mode of evangelization is embodied in the fourfold kind of dialogue: sharing of life, collaboration for the common good, theological discussion, and sharing of spiritual experiences. Similarly, economic assistance must not be carried out as ‘charity’ for the economically underdeveloped and poor (caritas ad pauperes) but also, and primarily, sharing of life, collaboration, intellectual exchange, and spiritual communion among the poor (inter pauperes) and with the poor (cum pauperibus). This mode of caritas is spiritually far more demanding and transformative than designing economic projects and implementing them in favor of the poor.

The work of caritas must begin with and lead to shared common life and friendship. Caritas cannot be lived at a distance from those to whom we practice caritas and from whom we receive it. Without genuine friendship that is possible only among equals, caritas runs the risk of being practiced as ‘charity’, a beneficence performed by a superior to an inferior.

Caritas and Theology Underlying such an understanding of missio and caritas is a theology of the Trinity as communio. More than caritas, this term and concept makes much more explicit the intrinsic connection between caritas as the ‘foundation of being human’ and the communion of the three divine Persons in the Trinity.

Indeed, in doing caritas, we humans are achieving and living the very same caritas or communio that constitutes the plurality of divine Persons into the unity of the Trinitarian community.

It is the belief in the Trinity and the activities of the three divine Persons in history—creating, redeeming, and reconciling humanity and the world—that animates Christian Caritas organizations and distinguishes them from other NGOs (even though their activities are the same and should be done in collaboration as much as possible.

Another theological concept that is central to this understanding of caritas is a new way of being church. In this ecclesiology there is a radical self-emptying (kenosis) of the church. Caritas is not undertaken for the sake of the church, Roman Catholic or otherwise, for its membership expansion through conversion and for its increase in influence through the establishment of various structures and organizations.

At the heart of caritas lies the reign (basileia) of God, God’s rule of justice, peace, and reconciliation of all humanity and the cosmos itself, for which the church is only a means and a servant.

To reverse the order is nothing short of idolatry. It is because the beginning and end of caritas is the reign of God that both Christians and non-Christians (and non-believers) can work ad, inter, and cum one another in caritate for the kingdom of God, in Asia, in its immense geography, its enormous population, its overwhelming poverty, its constant migration, its political pluriformity, its cultural diversity, and its religious pluralism.

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CARITAS IN LATIN AMERICA

BY FR P. JOSEBA SEGURA ECHEZARRAGA - ECUADOR

1. The Latin American context Not only Caritas, but the whole Church is being influenced by the context in which it lives and works. In Latin America (LA), the faith of the people and the centuries of Catholic tradition define the particular humus in which the social action of the church is evolving. But it is true that during the last 15 year many things are changing fast in LA. We want to name just some dimensions shaping the social context in which Caritas in LA is now working: ▪▪ Societies conformed by strong social differences with elites usually of Christian tradition but somehow not aware of their obligation towards justice and social cohesion.

▪▪ A social work of the church with resources very much dependent on foreign countries and partners, with a national community not very much aware of its responsibilities towards national challenges and the moral obligation to share the goods received from God. ▪▪ The fact that LA is the continent in which Liberation Theology was born and developed and the preferential option for the poor was conceived as an essential dimension of the proclamation of the Gospel. This fact results in a Catholic tradition very diverse on social approaches and sometimes in conflict within itself. During the last decade

we find ourselves in a more stable context, more open to dialogue and agreement, somehow having overcome an atmosphere of polarization. The recent documents from Benedict XVI (Deus Caritas Est, Caritas in Veritate) and from Francis (Evangelii Gaudium) stating that the charitable and social work of the church is a necessary dimension of the preaching and living of the Gospel, set up the stage for a more consensual way of approaching the issue.

▪▪ Some internal difficulties for developing Caritas: 1) t he apprehension in some ecclesial circles to an organization that smells to “charitable work”, paternalism or short sighted welfare practices even if this has more to do with the origins of Caritas in the ‘50s of last century and does not reflect the identity of today´s organization anymore; 2) t he difficulties to gather enough support among LA young priests to develop an organized and thriving social action in their parishes. The reason? Some would say that in their education the spiritual and sacramental dimensions have been stressed more than the social commitment of the church; others would point out to the fact that still in many LA countries, priests don’t have a proper salary and depend on their pastoral activities to make a living and that there is no money in charitable work.

Some notes on the Caritas name in LA. At one moment and for different reasons starting in the ‘70s, the name Caritas receded behind a new denomination which was ‘Pastoral Social’. Then slowly the name Caritas recovered more and more strength again. Today 19 Episcopal Conferences in LA count with an organization called ‘Pastoral Social Caritas’.

In three countries Pastoral Social and Caritas are different institutions but work in dialogue: Brasil, Argentina y Perú.

Photo Lotte van Elp

2. The spiritual sources of the Caritas work and Caritas-people in Latin America The Bible and specifically the Gospel are key sources to iluminate and nourish the social commitment and practices of the LA church. The stories which shape and motivate this commitment are many, starting from the story of liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt in Exodus, to the Good Samaritan. To that, we should add the rich social teaching from the prophets, and the fact that the first Christians shared their belongings with one another and with those in need. Catholic orders have been running hospitals and performing many social duties all over Latin America since the XVI century. Since 1891, we have also a rich tradition of encyclicals on social issues, giving clear guidelines in light of the Gospel teachings on how Christians should respond to poverty, oppression, and injustice.

Fr P. Joseba Segura Echezarraga JULY 2014 © CORDAID

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Apart from that, we should name four magisterial documents that have been very important for Caritas LA in the last decade: ‘Deus Caritas Est’, and even more ‘Caritas in Veritate’ by Benenict XVI (2005), ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ by Pope Francis, and the final document of the V Conference of Bishops of LA and Caribe in Aparecida (2007), a document in which elaboration Cardenal Bergoglio played a key role. The Chuch in LA commits itself to supporting sustainable development which should be built on real participation of the poor and those protagonists too many times excluded. We want to contribute to the shaping of social structures based on justice and inclusion. We want to continue the work of Christ who came to the world so that people “have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10) (Aparecida 355).

As for special testimonies of Christian witness in the recent history of LA, we say with Aparecida: “We wish to recall the courageous testimony of our men and women saints, and of those who, even though not canonized, have lived out the gospel radically, and have offered their life for Christ, for the Church, and for their people” (Aparecida 98).

Focusing on bishops, we can remember: Leonidas Proaño in Ecuador, Helder Camara in Brasil, and of course, Oscar Romero in El Salvador, only to name some of the most prominent figures among the many who still inspire social commitment all over LA.

Catholic orders have been running hospitals and performing many social duties all over Latin America since the XVI century.

3. Caritas rooted in communities and societies The rooting and extension of the national Caritas network is different from country to country. It is more developed in countries of the ‘Cono Sur’ with a strong cultural European influence in their origin and identity (like Argentina and Chile).

In other countries Caritas works more as a centralized agency at the diocesan and/or national levels, which handles different social projects and commitments of the Catholic Church, and only slowly is spreading its local network.

The structure and reality of the LA Caritas has grown in autonomy and maturation. Our vision and ways of doing pastoral processes are constructed entirely from the local realities, theological reflection and specific methodologies grown from experience. The theological richness of the LA Catholic tradition has strongly permeated our Caritas. So, although we do implement projects, they are well articulated with our pastoral objective processes, not being isolated actions any more. We insert our particular tasks and actions within well-defined pastoral axes, which now are: Human Develop­ment, Human Rights and Peace Building, Environmental-risk and Emergency Management, Gender equality, Institutional Strengthening and Advocacy, Empowerment and Participation.

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4. Important developments for Caritas a. Identity, mission and spirituality The identity and spirituality of Caritas derives from being one of the three components of the church holistic pastoral work.

The ministry of Caritas in integrated in the local Church and the Christian communities as a fundamental element in its life and mission. We see the face of the Lord in those we meet in our work for justice and inclusion.

But the spirituality and identity needs clarification and being permanently strengthened so that we find a good equilibrium of Christian commitment and technical capacities, of professionalism and voluntary work, of finding solutions to the situation of individuals and working to change structural dimensions of social problems, of doing our part and working together with government and other players.

The identity and spirituality of Caritas derives from being one of the three components of the church holistic pastoral work. b. Care for the creation “With the native peoples of the Americas, we praise the Lord who created the universe as the realm of life and the shared existence of all his sons and daughters, and left it to us as sign of his goodness and his beauty. Creation is also the manifestation of God’s provident love; it has been entrusted to us so that we may care for it and transform it as a source of decent life for all. Although a greater valorization of nature has become more widespread today, we clearly see how many ways human beings threaten and are still destroying their habitat.

“Our sister, mother earth” is our common home and the place of God’s covenant with human beings and with all creation.

To disregard the mutual relationships and balance that God himself established among created realities is an offense against the Creator, an attack on biodiversity and ultimately against life. The missionary disciple to whom God has entrusted creation must contemplate it, care for it, and use it, while always respecting the order given it by the Creator” (Aparecida 125).

Many countries of LA are rich in natural resources and right now are being run by governments with progressive social agendas which are in need of a lot of money to maintain their programs of social transformation. This is the case of Brasil, of Venezuela, of Bolivia and of Ecuador. In these cases, governments have decided for mineral and petroleum extractivism in order to ensure fiscal profits, instead of working toward the “Buen Vivir”, a philosophy of “good life” consistent with traditional values and oppose to depredatory practices that they pretend to promote.

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c. Sustainable development for all the people and for the whole person This refers to Integral and Solidarity-based Human Development (in Spanish Desarrollo Humano Integral y Solidario).

Inspired by the Gospel, the Social Doctrine of the Church and the Aparecida’s reflections, the Caritas in LA wants to promote human development in an integral and inclusive way (Populorum Progressio n. 42), development that can be ecologically sustainable and which takes seriously the participation of those who are poor or have been excluded, building a new creation based on justice and solidarity.

“The universal destiny of goods demands solidarity with both the present and future generations. Because resources are ever more limited, their use must be regulated according to a principle of distributive justice, while respecting sustainable development” (Aparecida 126).

5. The relation of Caritas with other political and social actors If it is difficult in any issue to speak in general terms about the situation and behavior of any LA Caritas, it is even more problematic to answer this particular question in broad terms.

The relation between Caritas and other political and social actors in each country depends on many factors and among them: a) The sensibility of the Catholic Church in the country towards social involvement and public profile issues, and specifically the situation of the Church-Estate dialogue. b) The history of Caritas in the country, its public image, the extension of its network, the availability of its resources, its recognition by government and civil society. c) The attitude of government towards the public role of the church and, specifically, about the social profile of the church. This has usually to do with the more or less progressive character of the government in social issues.

Taking some risk, I would like to present to discussion this tentative rule of thumb: the bigger the social agenda of the government, the more problematic becomes the social action of the church in a particular country.

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Beyond working with governments, it is important for Caritas to work also with other organizations of civil society building coalitions with non-religious partners.

As for Catholic Church integration of different institutions, there is right now an interesting experience coordinated from Caritas Ecuador which aims to set up a pan-amazonica structure of 4 different church institutions (Celam, Cáritas LA, Bishop Conference of Brasil and Religious Orders) in order to define a common program of action to defend the human rights of the original peoples and to coordinate the defense of this wonderful and key resource for the world.

Local governments in rural communities are eager and in need of technical help and the experience that Caritas can provide.

In any case, it is more and more clear and widely accepted that it does not make sense any more for the church to work in social issues in an independent manner. without collaboration with the state or with any other social actor. Particularly the goal to maintain sustainability of interventions beyond the time-table of specific projects and available funds, especially when those funds come from outside, requires the implication of as many actors as possible and particularly government.

The way forward is to deepen institutional collaboration when possible, particularly with local governments at the lowest level of the estate structure. Local governments in rural communities are eager and in need of technical help and the experience that Caritas can provide.

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INTERVIEWS

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

interviews

INTRODUCTION

If the structures are the body of Caritas, people are the heart and the soul of the agencies. We need structures to organize our work and to give continuity to our work. But the personal engagement of people, their personal commitment to the mission of Caritas as representing the love of God for every human being, is the essence. The conference was a gathering of unique, remarkable people.

During the conference, Frank van Lierde en Lotte van Elp, (working at the communication department of Cordaid,) interviewed six participants. Here you read their stories and experiences as sources of inspiration.

▪▪ S.O.S: Spirituality of Solidarity Fr Cedric Praksh ▪▪ Passing on the Gift of Knowledge Dr. Benedict D’Rozario ▪▪ Caritas and the Corporate Culture of Risk Aversiveness John Ashworth ▪▪ “Live and Stay With the People You Serve” Theo van den Broek ▪▪ “Dialogue Is Not About Sitting and Talking Together” Elga Sarapung ▪▪ ‘Caritas Means That Peace is Greather Than Violence’ Fr Augusto Zampini

René Grotenhuis, Former CEO of Cordaid

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

S.O.S: SPIRITUALITY OF SOLIDARITY INTERVIEW WITH CEDRIC PRAKASH BY FRANK VAN LIERDE

Cedric Prakash is a Jesuit priest of the Gujarat province. He is the director of Prashant, a center for Human Rights, Justice and Peace. He founded the center in Ahmedabad, city of Gandhi, in 2001. This month (July) he completes 40 years in the Society of Jesus. On account of his activism for peace and human rights, Cedric Prakash has received several threats including those to his life; but he has also received international recognition in the form of prestigious awards, from organizations and Governments in India and abroad.

When asked about the essence of the concept of ‘caritas’, Prakash immediately relates it to issues of justice. “Pope Benedictus XVI gave a new meaning to caritas. Before, caritas was very much the idea of giving a hungry man fish when he asks for fish. Caritas was a matter of being a benefactor, a donor. Today, caritas is a matter of teaching the hungry how to fish and helping him for life. This is a paradigm shift.

It means caritas is about addressing endemic and structural causes of injustice and looking for structural transformation.”

Caritas is about addressing endemic and structural causes of injustice and looking for structural transformation.

Prakash is an affable yet fierce promoter of pluralism and inclusiveness. These values are at the core of his work in India.

“At the moment India is increasingly suffering from ‘majoritarianism’, symbolized by prime minister Modi and his BJP party. “Majoritarianism” is a feeling that India will truly develop only as a Hindu nation-state! This is totally against democratic principles and goes against the core values enshrined in the Constitution of India. This is sad and dangerous, as it undermines all values of solidarity and the acceptance of different others, different cultures and it is a denial of what India is: a rich variety of cultures, languages and religions.”

Caritas as antidote to majoritarianism Responding to the key question is how caritas can help to reclaim the specificity, the difference and how caritas can help others not to become subservient to a majority identity, Prakash asserts “that is exactly the essence of caritas; namely to create a space for the other, a space in society in which the other can say ‘this is where I belong, where I feel at home’.

Of course this is a matter of changing power relations, but maybe it starts with changing the attitudes of people. Take the example of this white woman who was seated next to a black man in an airplane. She asked the steward to be given another

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Photo Lotte van Elp

For Prakash, being a Jesuit means serving the faith and promoting justice; these are two inseparables, like two sides of a coin: it means siding with the poor, the excluded and the exploited. In that sense his life and work is pervaded by the value of caritas. According to Prakash, Pope Francis gives a new and extra élan and inspiration to side with the poor and to address matters of injustice. “Many criticize him, saying he is a communist. Nonsense. He is only doing what Jesus told us to do.”

Fr Cedric Prakash

seat. Fist she said it was because of the length of the flight she needed more space and wanted a business class seat. In the end she admitted that she didn’t want to sit next to a black man.

Finally the steward addressed the black man and said: ‘sir, we are happy to offer you an upgrade to business class’. The other passengers had followed the whole affair and applauded the black man and the steward. The woman’s attitude was countered by the attitude of the steward.”

Rising nationalism “Just like this black man, Muslims all over the world, in India as well as in Europe, are often being treated as second-class citizens; they are looked upon as a threat. I notice it myself in several places in Europe. I have also experienced this subtle but real discrimination: often when standing in a security queue in a US airport, I am singled out for additional checks. It is so blatantly obvious that this ‘happens’ just because I look different from the others. True caritas, which promotes pluralism and opening up oneself to the richness but also the suffering of others, is a force that can address and counter rising nationalism, indifference, exclusiveness and fear.”

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In India, Prakash’ center for human rights is involved in a long and difficult case of bringing prime minister Modi to trial for the thousands of Muslims who were killed in retaliation for the murder of citizens in Gujarat in 2002, under the governorship of Modi. Prakash: “Muslims are still dispossessed and harassed today in Gujarat, for no other reason than being Muslim. What happened in 2002 in Gujarat is a bloody chapter in the recent history of India. The systematic exclusion of Muslims can be compared to Nazi practices, perhaps not in the extent but in the systematic manner in which people were killed, brutalized, raped and looted. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat then: there are cases in the courts against him. Just because he has become Prime Minister of India today does not make him less culpable. The judicial system in India is rather slow and there is every reason to believe that it has at times become victim to ‘majoritarianism’; but we have hope that the wheels of justice will ensure the triumph of truth. It is our responsibility to create a space for the non-majority, Muslims in this case. And if this means that we are being seen as anti-nationalists or even “terrorists”, as powerful and vested interests see us, then so be it.”

The church of the poor is plural and inclusive.

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is on the rise. We come together in Vught to deepen the sense of solidarity between all peoples and religions and to deepen our sense of inclusiveness so that we can better address the globalization of indifference. In that sense I would have preferred the heading of the conference to be the ‘spirituality of solidarity’ rather than the ‘mystique of fraternity’, ‘mystique being a catholic concept and fraternity being a very masculine word. And it just comes to mind now, that the abbreviation is S.O.S., illustrating how badly this spirituality of solidarity is needed. We accompany the people of God in their search for God’s kingdom here on this earth.”

Joy of the Gospels When asked what he hopes will be the outcome of the conference, Prakash is clear in his answer. “I hope we can find answers to the question how we, as Caritas organizations can become more vocal and more visible. To become more visible, we need to let our light shine. We can and should do this by taking a firm stand in matters of injustice, by making better use of social media and traditional media and by daring to become more vulnerable. By this I mean standing with the poor and marginalized and being ready to be called a ‘communist’ or a ‘terrorist’. Do not consider that a threat, but live it as the joy of the gospels.”

A space of belonging Timely and unique This Cordaid Centenary Conference in Vught is a unique gathering which comes at the right time, according to Prakash.

“It is unique, in the first place because of the variety of participants, coming from all over the world, representing different religions yet connected by the core value of caritas. This shows many things. That the church cannot present itself as an ‘exclusive club’ of people. The church of the poor is plural and inclusive. It comes at the right time, as indifference towards the other, towards the non-majority, towards the marginalized

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Prakash considers the death threats and harassments he has to deal with himself as ‘occupational hazards’. They are not withholding him ‘from doing what he stands for’. When asked what it is he stands for, he briefly smiles, looking for the right word. “I guess I stand for humanity. A humanity which gives freedom to all people to have a space, a space that allows every person to have a deep sense of belonging. It is a space you need to be given by others. Therefore living is not about how much you can get, but about how much more you can give.”

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

PASSING ON THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE INTERVIEW WITH DR. BENEDICT D’ROZARIO BY FRANK VAN LIERDE

Dr. Benedict D’Rozario heads Caritas Bangladesh, with a 6000+ staff one of the biggest Caritas organizations in the world.

It is a highly regarded Catholic organization operating right in the heart of one of the biggest Muslim countries in the world.

Much of D’Rozario’s time is spent in high level meetings in Bangladesh and abroad. But as a student in development studies and a young development worker, he literally spent years living with isolated Bangladeshi communities. Still today, as executive director, not a month goes by without a longer visit to a rural village. Most of his insights and principles related to the concept of caritas have ripened during these longer stays. D’Rozario: “For me caritas is the opportunity to return and share some of the gifts I was given by God without asking for it. It is also a responsibility to share, because the love I have received by God, by my family, my community, my schoolmates, my Muslim brothers and sisters, has made me the person I am today. So I am indebted to them.”

Sharing and spreading, not only his own knowledge, but mainly the knowledge others have in coping with adversity, this has become the essence of what D’Rozario is doing professionally. For him, every person is a book and every community a university. And this philosophy has turned into a basic organizational principle of Caritas Bangladesh.

D’Rozario: “It struck me when I started working with Caritas, that in some places where we did not intervene after disaster struck, people were better at solving problems of survival, even without our help. So these were the places I went to, to learn.

For example, when floods hit Bangladesh in 1988, people from Dhaka asked for assistance, but people from places that were hit more badly, didn’t ask for help. I discovered that these communities had worked out all kinds of community coping mechanisms. Every morning people gathered under local leadership to assess the flood situation and discussed whether or not the time was ripe to send their children to school or call them back home, to send cattle to the fields or not, to wrap seeds reserves in plastic, etc etc. They had their own systems to save food and to prepare for floods and other natural disasters.

So I saw it as our task to spread the knowledge of these lifesaving coping mechanisms. We documented them, published and shared it. Likewise in the coastal areas, all villages are equally affected by salinity, but some never apply for help. Why? Because they have adapted their livelihood systems, for example by changing poultry farming for ducks who are less vulnerable to salt, and fish farming for crab farming, or by raising the dykes, by planting trees on embankments. So we started organizing visits of communities who were at a loss because of salt water floods to these farmers who had adapted themselves. This way of passing on practical knowledge is much more efficient than to impose changes. For me, this way of sharing knowledge is in essence a form of caritas.”

How to ‘organize’ caritas?

Caritas is hard work, and not necessarily because of the hard physical and human condition in which the work takes place.

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Photo Frank van Lierde

The knowledge and wisdom of survivors

Dr. Benedict D’Rozario

D’Rozario: “The main hardship of this work is to convince staff of the importance to work selflessly; not to expect anything in return yet remain very responsive and proactive.

It is a common human reaction to feel superior when you give something to someone. So for many, also among our staff, it is hard not to feel superior in whatever form, but to feel blessed to be given the opportunity to share.”

People reject support from governments or international donors if they weren’t listened to beforehand.

Aid or care that is given in a top down or superior manner cannot be effective, according to D’Rozario. “People reject support from governments or international donors if they weren’t listened to beforehand or if they weren’t involved in the needs assessment. It is aid that is not asked for, not needed and therefore rejected. So there is not a single Caritas Bangladesh aid project that has not been discussed and designed with the communities from the start. All of them are evaluated together, with complaint boxes in the villages. Participation and financial contribution should be shared as much as possible. Local so called ‘aid receiving’ communities share immense parts of their time, their resources and their money 27

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

to the humanitarian work. We act together, in all senses of the word. That’s why the budget of Caritas Bangladesh consists for 40% of local contributions. Everybody shares. Even staff shares from their own pocket. We pay 1 day salary for the Lenten Campaign, 1 day salary for educational projects and we all contribute freely to the staff solidarity fund, used for small and immediate needs of mothers, fathers and children in poor communities, without needing to go through difficult administrative procedures.”

So this is how ‘caritas’ is organized… By learning from others, passing on knowledge and stimulating personal involvement.

Catholic organization in a Muslim society But how do you organize yourself as a Christian organization in a largely Muslim society? D’Rozario: “70% of our staff is non-Christian, mainly Muslim. But within Caritas we don’t identify ourselves as Muslim, Christian or Hindu. Every morning we pray together, reading from the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Gita.”

We work and learn together and through our work and formation the Christian will become a better Christian, the Muslim a better Muslim, the Buddhist a better Buddhist. So within the organization there are no tensions. But there have been other tensions. More than once Caritas Bangladesh has been the subject of public investigations and allegations coming from fundamentalist Muslim leaders of having a hidden religious agenda inside Muslim communities, of trying to convert people.

But no ground or proof of that was ever found. Today we are highly respected by the government, the army and all indigenous and religious communities. Even so much so that in some areas we are the only NGO that is given entrance, for example in the Hill districts in the southeast, which is a politically highly sensitive area because of separatism and social unrest. The reason for this broad acceptance lies in our objectivity, our financial transparency, our commitment and our principle to keep at a safe distance from government and politics. Which doesn’t mean that I cannot advise the finance minister on budget issues, which is what I do, but that I will never accept any political appointment or invitation. My dealings are with the state and state officials, never with politicians.”

As to staffing, D’Rozario’s main concern is how to retain Christian employees. “Last year was our worst year.

The bombings, killings and other attacks of Muslim fundamentalist drove many Christians out of the country.

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A lot of our Christian employees, highly educated and well to do people, left Caritas. So my concern is how to keep Christians within the organization. I think that about 35% of Christians is a necessity to keep the identity of Caritas alive, an identity that is built around core values like selflessness, sharing, forgiveness and the love of your neighbor.”

Badly needed Core values of caritas, or rather the tendency to lose track of them, is something D’Rozario is worried about. Even though a lot of valuable theological thinking has been done in recent years, to give the work of Caritas a thorough intellectual and spiritual basis – the encyclical Deus Caritas Est for example, this thinking is not well embedded in the daily work of many Caritas organizations and not well accepted by Caritas members, according to D’Rozario. “I have some frustrations that some members are moving away from our core values. That’s why I think this conference here in Vught focusing on the Caritas identity and Catholic social teachings, is badly needed.

I hope we can reflect and define the meaning of our work, which for me is about witnessing the love of God. Because we are created and loved by God as equals, as brothers and sisters, we have the responsibility to share and give to each other, rich to poor and poor to rich.”

It is a common thought that caritas is about giving to others. But in order to give you must be able to receive.

Allowing the other to give “What I personally hope this conference will bring is that we will find more meaning in what we do and that we will have sharpened the tools of solidarity and found ways to become more effective. What I hope we will leave after these 3 days in Vught is pride and arrogance. And finally I hope these days will help us to become better ‘receivers’. It is a common thought that caritas is about giving to others. But in order to give you must be able to receive. We usually feel satisfaction by giving and we don’t care much to receive. But my experience is that every person, even the poorest beggar, maybe especially him or her, has a treasure to give. We need to allow the other to give.”

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

CARITAS AND THE CORPORATE CULTURE OF RISK AVERSIVENESS INTERVIEW WITH JOHN ASHWORTH BY FRANK VAN LIERDE “In the fields of action, like South Sudan, the true spirit of fraternity and caritas, among staff of NGOs and even Caritas organizations, has diminished in the last decade or two.” The person offering this critical stance knows what he is talking about. John Ashworth left England and went to Sudan in 1983 as a missionary priest. On and off in the last 30 years he has been involved in processes of development, peace and reconciliation, together with the church in Sudan and – ever since it gained independence two years ago – in South Sudan.

Today John is no longer a priest. But he still has a mission, which is to stay in Sudan and South Sudan and to work for peace. Not as an expat or missionary priest, but as an independent person who lives with the South Sudanese and feels a member of the community. “This is where I am at home,” he says. He continues to work with the church as a freelancer, notably as advisor to the South Sudan Committee for National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation. “My first Africa experience was as a voluntary teacher of physics. I think that’s a good way to start development work. You start by living and working with the people you try to assist. You start by trying to fit within their structures, their culture.”

But staying in times of war is challenging. In 1992 John left Africa for a while. “Experiences during the war in Sudan had burned me out. I went to the US, did a master’s degree in spirituality and counselling. Once I felt renewed I was asked by a Caritas organization to go back. So I went back. I knew then that Sudan and South Sudan are the places where I am at home. My experience and my relations, personally as well as professionally, are who I am. And in Sudan and South Sudan you’re not judged by your degrees or titles, but by your relationships. You have to earn these relations, these ties and they define you as a person. It’s Ubuntu, but it’s also caritas: your dignity as a person depends on the love and care of others.”

When war broke out in South Sudan in December 2013, John was in the capital, Juba. “The mobile phone network was down.

The first few days I drove around and went from place to place to alert the Caritas network and gather church leaders from different denominations to come up with a statement. I saw the fighting going on. At one point literally thousands of refugees were packed in the churches. And Caritas staff had locked themselves in their compounds like the rest of the international community.”

Creating a space for reconciliation The church’s role in South Sudan has always been to stay involved in processes of peace and reconciliation, according to John. “It is who we are,” he says. “The committee for national healing, peace and reconciliation was set up before the war broke out, as we had understood long before that a lack of reconciliation was the countries’ biggest problem. There never was any form of reconciliation between warring groups before in Sudan or South Sudan, so this was new and absolutely necessary for peace in the longer term. Caritas had provided funding for the committee. The goal was to set up a process for

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Photo Lotte van Elp

Renewed

John Ashworth

years to come and to create a space where people can reconcile, people from all factions and parties, leaders, villagers, men and women. That was the main mission: not to reconcile people, that is impossible as only the people themselves can reconcile, but to create a space where people can try to reconcile themselves. This was about to start, when the war broke out. We’re not back to zero, but there are challenges. You can’t really talk about reconciliation as long as there is a war still going on. And though the current cease fire seems to be more promising than the previous one, there is still fighting going on.”

There is only one way to change things, and that is to gain people’s trust, listen to their needs, and walk side by side, even when the going gets tough.

Air conditioned bubbles Meanwhile NGOs have cautiously taken up activities again in South Sudan. But in their desire to implement programs, NGO professionals forget a crucial lesson John Ashworth has learnt 29

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Photo ??

Anti-fraternity

John Ashforth during the closing of the conference

from experience; that there’s only one way to change things, and that is to gain people’s trust, listen to their needs, walk side by side and stay with them, even when the going gets tough. “Today NGOs are staffed with young and skilled professionals who stay for 6 months or so, live in air conditioned bubbles and then go home. They think they know everything, yet they know nothing about local realities. Staff from church related organizations often don’t even know how to relate to the church. So these professionals try hard, but they haven’t got a chance.”

John qualifies the culture of most NGOs as one of risk aversiveness. “They handcuff themselves with protocols of safety, of management, of reporting and accountability. This prevents staff from doing the caritas work they are meant to do and from being part of the community they work in. It reduces their effectiveness. Once there is a security threat, the only thing that counts is corporate safety. And staff is being treated like children. In Juba, many NGOs set their own curfews, even when the city is alive and thriving. This means that NGOs are cutting themselves from the people they are trying to work with and for.”

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This risk aversiveness has deeply affected the spirit of fraternity, John thinks. “I don’t know how this anti-fraternity can be diminished… It is a western phenomenon, as most of the NGOs are western. And I have been in Africa too long to really understand this phenomenon. The only thing I know is that it has drastically increased. 20 years ago I could set up a program together with the community. Today it’s the EU and the big donors who define the programs. All flexibility is gone. All budgets are earmarked. The funding climate has changed, fear of litigation, demands of corporate branding and a new human resource culture all have contributed to a risk aversiveness that is undermining the spirit of caritas. NGOs should stop calling themselves NGOs. They are often just subcontractors of their government or of bigger back donors. I have seen good projects in South Sudan which were stopped instantly because of the donor government policy changes. Caritas’ mission is to respond to the needs of the local people. But often that is not what you are doing.”

“This conference is all about the spirit of fraternity. I hope that during these days in Vught, we can address the lack of fraternity in fields of action like South Sudan.”

Optimism After Vught, John will fly back to Juba. And even though the war is not likely to stop soon, he remains optimistic. “There are still too many military advantages for the warring parties to stop soon. The rebels have no exit strategy. But the good thing is that the internal tensions within South Sudan are out in the open now. Before, everybody thought that once the problems with Khartoum were settled, the road to a peaceful future would lay open. That was a delusion. Now the delusion is recognized.”

As for himself, John somehow has found personal ways of dealing with difficulties that come with working and living ‘in the fields of action’. “Like so many people I witnessed the massacres and the killings so many times, from the early eighties until today. I have lost friends. When the current war started I felt very weary. Not again, we said. But I quickly found the power to respond and to act, as I had gone through this many times before.”

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“LIVE AND STAY WITH THE PEOPLE YOU SERVE” INTERVIEW WITH THEO VAN DEN BROEK BY FRANK VAN LIERDE

Photo Frank van Lierde

Even though his Dutch is still as fluent as ever, it is doubtful whether Theo van den Broek (70) can still be called a Dutchman.

After spending 40 years in Papua (Indonesia), he has a new homeland. “I went to Papua as a missionary Franciscan brother.

I have never stopped working with the people in Jayapura and other places, standing side by side in their struggle for political, economic and social justice. In Papua I became the person I am today and Papua will be the place where I will die. I am no longer a Franciscan brother – I have married a Papua woman - but I have never dissociated myself from the social mission of the Church in Papua.”

Theo van den Broek

political aspects of the social work the Church engages in and urges church authorities not to turn a blind eye to issues of justice. Van de Broek: “When Papua was integrated into the Indonesian nation in 1963, the local population had no say in the process. Up until today they feel neglected, by Indonesia, by the Dutch, by the US. For them aspects of poverty and underdevelopment, which are huge, cannot be dissociated from the political injustice they experience and their struggle for self-determination. Of course, neither the church nor myself ever took sides in this struggle for independence. But I have always defended the people’s right of self-determination.

And I have always insisted with church leaders, that church building and missionary work includes the politically more difficult and sensitive struggle against injustice.

During my years as head of the Human Rights Commission of the Jayapura diocese, until 2005, I managed to convince the church of this. Personally, it was totally impossible for me not to speak out against the many cases of discrimination, arrests, murders and disappearances.”

Caritas against all odds Over the years van den Broek has developed an intense and intimate connection with the people of Papua, first as a missionary brother and later as the lay man he is today. It is this connection that embodies the essence of how he looks at the concept of ‘caritas’. In 40 years’ time he witnessed how this connection between church aid worker and the community he serves has changed drastically. And not always for the better.

Isolation and connectedness

For van den Broek, in essence ‘caritas’ means staying with the community you have come to serve and allowing yourself to become a part of that community.

Missionary work includes the politically more difficult and sensitive struggle against injustice.

Theo: “When I came here, back in the ‘70s, missionaries came from far away and settled in extremely isolated communities, deep in the interior. Where public transport stopped, you had to walk through forests and marsh land. Though I coordinated social work of the diocese of Jayapura, and stayed in the provincial capital, I visited many of the outposts.

Communication with the outside world was difficult then.

Twice a day, there was an SSB (Single Side Band) radio connection. Today, communication by road and by internet has greatly improved. It means that even in the smallest village you are better connected to the world, to your family. But it also means that the connection you feel with the people you have come to serve, can become less personal, less intense, less strong.

Whatever the odds. “Ever since Soeharto there has been an organized influx or transmigration of Muslims to Papua, to the extent that the local mainly Christian population has become a minority today and has lost all economic and political control over their own lives. We have always stood up and spoken out against this marginalization. Of course Indonesian authorities and the army didn’t ‘like’ this. Some of my colleagues and myself, we were blacklisted as being ‘anti-government’ and ‘anti-nationalistic’. Essentially what they told us was to ‘shut up’. What can you do in that case? For a couple of days I changed my modes of transport, looked around more carefully. But then again, if they want to find you, they will, whatever measures you take.”

Besides that, most of the missionaries who come to Papua today, come from other parts of Indonesia. They have, naturally, a more Indonesian perspective on Papua, which is different.”

From the beginning, van den Broek recognizes the sensitive

Necessity to act

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Van den Broek’s full time involvement in the church’s human rights work started in the mid ‘90’s, on a day a small group of villagers desperately wanted to speak to the bishop, but the 31

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only one present was van den Broek. “They had travelled from far. They didn’t know who to turn to anymore. People in their village had been shot, others had been beaten up, locked up in containers… They were desperate and wanted to talk to the bishop, who wasn’t there. There and then, as head of the Diocese office at that time I transgressed the limits of my formal authorities and I decided to investigate the human rights violations they shared to the fullest. Anyway, after I communicated with the bishop, he agreed most heartly with my decision. This resulted in the first human rights report ever to be published by the Church in Papua, in 1995. I knew this was politically very tricky and sensitive. But at the moment the villagers confronted me, a few essential things coincided. There was the immediate confrontation with the sufferings of the people in front of me; there was the decision I had once taken to be at the service of the people in Papua; the knowledge that you are part of the Church and that this gives you a position that you can influence things. There was my own spirituality as a Franciscan, my option for the poor, that allowed me to be touched and disturbed by the eyewitnesses. All this resulted in feeling of solidarity and responsibility and a necessity to act.”

Risk aversive The moral necessity to act and to speak out, as an expression of caritas… Van den Broek points out that it is increasingly difficult to do fulfill this commitment as a church organization. “The new pope is a true inspiration. But narrow financial ties of the church with the national government and with the corporate industry pressure social organizations of the church not to be too critical, to be risk aversive and not to speak out loudly against social and political injustice. And the shift the Church took under Benedictus XVI to pay more attention to devotion and less to societal issues, hasn’t helped either. That’s why a conference as this one here in Vught can help us to feed and strengthen our own spirituality of caritas, to deepen our connectedness to the sufferings of others and to make sure that human rights and justice remain an essential part of the Church’s pastoral work.”

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New elites, more migrants When van den Broek analyzes Papua’s current situation, he comes to the conclusion that the huge amounts of government spending and the legislative efforts to regulate the autonomy of Papua have not improved the lives of the common people of Papua. “Unfortunately national Indonesian budgets for Papua, meant to develop the province, have created a Papua elite that has enriched itself with government money and enhanced internal tensions. On top of that these riches have only attracted more migrants. So even though there is an autonomy law for Papua since 2001, the discrimination against the local population, which has now become a minority, has only increased.”

No need for big cathedrals Today van den Broek is an independent aid worker. In the past 10 years he worked for several NGOs in Papua as well as Eastern Timor, often in management positions. At the age of 70, after 40 years ‘in the field’, his main message to professionals and organizations who strive to work in the spirit of caritas is ‘to live and to stay with the people you serve’. Van den Broek: “There is no need to build big cathedrals or to appoint high level church officials. Just live with the people, stay for longer periods of time than just a few months, listen carefully to what they share with you and base your efforts of development and justice upon their knowledge, their experience and their sufferings.”

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

“DIALOGUE IS NOT ABOUT SITTING AND TALKING TOGETHER” INTERVIEW WITH ELGA SARAPUNG BY FRANK VAN LIERDE For Elga Sarapung and the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue (Interfidei) where she works, dialogue entails more than just sitting together and listening to each other. It is a transforming process where people slowly overcome their prejudices towards ‘other’ religions and ‘other’ groups and where direct interaction leads to new ways of thinking.

Sharing a bedroom

New ways of teaching In schools as well Interfidei is promoting similar experiences of ‘direct interaction’. Elga: “In Yogjakarta we are training religious school teachers, from primary up to senior high school, to be more multicultural in their teachings and to include all religions in the curriculum. Teachers form private and public schools join workshops with religious leaders of all faiths. It’s a very slow process, because changing mindsets and overcoming prejudices takes time, and also because bureaucracy at schools and on government levels is a big obstacle to change. Changing religious curricula asks for a lot of creativity from the teachers.”

Exposing individuals to the inner world of others and outside realities is what ‘direct interaction’ comes down to. It’s also what Interfidei does with school going kids. Elga: “We take children out of the classroom, to parts of society they are usually never exposed to, like prisons, rehabilitation houses, mosques, churches, pesantren (Islamic boarding schools)…

These visits push kids to new limits in their thinking. They discuss a score of issues after each visit. We now have a small group of teachers in Yogjakarta who are regularly doing this and who have integrated pluralistic methods and subjects in their curriculum. Changes are always met with opposition.

In schools and in our workshops most of the opposition comes from more traditional Muslim, Catholic and Protestant participants. But we keep on explaining to them that exposing yourself to the world of others is the only way to live together in Indonesia.”

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Photo Lotte van Elp

Take the workshops she organizes where religious and community leaders of all the faiths in Indonesia (and there are many) gather together. Against all customs and often interfering with personal wishes, Elga makes sure these leaders share a sleeping room at the workshop venues, not with the opposite sex, but with the ‘opposite faith’. Elga: “We always make sure a Buddhist shares a room with a Muslim, or a Catholic, a Muslim with a Protestant, or whatever other combination. For these religious leaders, or teachers, or youth leaders, this is very disturbing at first. But for us it is a crucial part of the process of learning how to respect each other and how to learn what the other is feeling and to share deep experiences. This is why we Christians join in Ramadan and why we take Catholic leaders to the mosque or vice versa. It is the only way people can learn to live together and that the pluralistic society of Indonesia has a future. It is very necessary, as pluralism and tolerance are increasingly under threat. And intolerance is a consequence of the fact that people do not know how to live their religion in a pluralistic society.”

Elga Sarapung

Hard confrontations Elga’s philiosophy is that interfaith dialogue is not so much about writing theories and making analyses, not even about sitting together and talk. It’s about creating and upholding processes of interaction and action. As she puts it: “If we never live together, then we have no basis for dialogue. Myself, I am a Protestant. The Protestant church has a ‘church & society program’. What they do is caritative work, giving alms so to speak. So we tell them that what they should do is to go out and meet the others, stay in the pesantrens, go to the mosques and share experiences and diminish prejudice on both sides. Then they tell us they are afraid of ‘bad’ experiences, hard discussions, rows. But it’s good to experience these harder confrontations as well, as it is the beginning of real dialogue and it frees people from the sentiments and stories they have kept inside for too long. Without these interactive confrontations Muslims will keep on being perceived by others as ‘violent’ and ‘terrorists’, Catholics as ‘idolators’, Protestants as ‘hedonists’, Buddhists as having ‘too many gods’ or adepts of something that is ‘not a real religion’…”

Caritas Creating a space for interaction is Elga’s perception of interfaith dialogue. It’s pretty much the definition of Caritas. Elga: “In my work I see that caritas is a deep calling in all religions.

It’s the core of religion and it makes us ask ourselves ‘how do we realize that our life is not only for ourselves but for the 33

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oikos, for the community at large? For me at Interfidei, this specifically means how can we create an inclusive and pluralistic theology and overcome obstacles coming from closed perspectives, tradition, history and narrow theological interpretations? From a Christian perspective, this means: Jesus was there for everybody, not only for me as a Christian.

‘Follow me’, Jesus said. This doesn’t mean we have to become Christians, but that we follow his spirit, that we create bridges, are open, and learn from other spiritual sources like Islam.”

Religion and the State Religions are sources for all to drink from, in Elga’s view. But they aren’t matters to be dictated by the State. Elga is very critical about a close interference between state and faith.

“When different groups meet and discuss, I always place them and myself in the context of the nation, meaning that I try to convince everybody to look at each other as citizens of the same nation, with the same constitutional rights and obligations.

The first thing is stop looking at yourself or the other as member of a group, a religion, a minority and to claim rights and freedoms as a minority or group member. That is totally wrong as it is the start of conflict. Indonesia has a very progressive and tolerant constitution and people’s religions and other freedoms are very well guaranteed. That is, on paper. The problem is that the government is increasingly being influenced by religious pressure and fatwahs from the Ulama Council, and that the constitution is losing ground as our governing fundament. Why should the government ban Ahmadiyah as a form of faith? The fatwahs push them to do this, but our constitution perfectly deals with what is tolerated in these matters and what isn’t. Or take the new law on religious tolerance. This law prescribes people how to bury their dead, how they should dress, how women should cover themselves, etc, all this in a very Islamic way. But why should the state do this? Why interfere with religious life, if we have a constitution that deals with this in a perfectly pluralistic manner? So by being very critical of the increasingly close relationship between faith and state in Indonesia, Interfidei is trying counter intolerance.”

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Even though intolerance is on the rise in her country, Elga remains optimistic. “When Interfidei started back in 1991, not one of the churches supported us. For them interfaith dialogue was something they feared. ‘Beware of Islamization’ said the Christians, ‘beware of Christianization’ said the Muslims.

Today we work with many churches, and many schools. So we come from a long way.”

Future hopes for Caritas Elga is glad to take part in the Caritas conference in Vught.

Together with others she can amply reflect upon the caritas work that is being done in so many parts of the world. She mentions 3 points in particular: “I hope together we can deepen the understanding that we all live and work in a multicultural and multireligious world and that it should give us satisfaction and pride to serve the interest of all people, whether church-related or not. Secondly, when we serve the poor, we also have to ask ourselves why the poor become poor.

And that more and more there is a momentum for the church to speak out loud against injustice. Thirdly I hope to find common ground to develop the sense of self-criticism. How can the church as an institution better adapt itself to the pluralistic world society? How can we counter corruption within our own church institutions?”

Woman in a world of men For decades now Elga Sarapung has worked and mingled in a world of men: bishops, priests, kiai, monks, religious teachers.

Even though there was a rise in the feminist movement in the 80’s, Elgo still hardly meets women religious leaders wherever she goes. “99% of them are men. The world of churches and mosques is a very masculine and sometimes even macho world.

Yet I do not feel excluded. In theory one might think that intolerance would decrease with more women in the Indonesian Council of Protestant Churches, in the Bishops’ Conference, in the Ulama council… But in practice? I doubt it.

I was vice-chair of the Synod at one period. Not for long.

I wasn’t the right person in the right place. Not the right person. It didn’t have anything to do with me being a woman.”

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interviews

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

“CARITAS MEANS THAT PEACE IS GREATER THAN VIOLENCE” INTERVIEW WITH FR AUGUSTO ZAMPINI BY LOTTE VAN ELP Unlike most participants, Father Augusto Zampini arranged his own transport to the far-off Hotel Zin in Vught. He came all the way from London using his own motorbike for the 6-hour drive: ‘I like to think of myself as a biker before a theologian’, he jokes and laughs. Anyone who spends time with this young Argentinian Priest, however, will know that to be untrue.

Father Zampini went through a major career switch in the ‘90s when he left his job as a corporate lawyer in Argentina. Since then, he asks himself what the concept of caritas means to him.

Father Zampini says he has a different background than most of the participants in Vught. ‘I work for CAFOD now, but I do not have a long history of working for NGOs and charity work.

I am from a different world and look at caritas with different eyes.’

In a recent interview with the British newspaper the Guardian, Father Zampini refers to how the Pope once said he works every day to try to see the world through the eyes of the poor: “He told us as young priests, you have to work hard as priests to get the view the poor have of the world. And if that’s the case, we will be a different church in the 21st century” Zampini elaborates on this: “The challenge is to see reality through the eyes of the poor, but, at the same time, acknowledging you never will be poor. We have work and always have someone to talk to and people to relate with. Even if we try to be poor, we will never be poor.”

“You have to meet poor people – and I believe you can be poor in many ways, in your health or in relationships. You have to go the outskirts and meet people who are struggling with life..

You cannot see reality from the parish from the church; you have to see the church from the world.”

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Photo Lotte van Elp

“I wonder how caritas informs my way of thinking. Is it just another value, an addendum to all other things I believe in?

Or is it crosscutting and in fact essential for all human beings?

In the end I believe there is no person or community that does not have caritas. Of course, other people can improve it or hinder it. That is what we call love.”

Fr Augusto Zampini

I find caritas in these personal encounters. In reconciliation efforts, in baptizing, weddings, funerals, all these big moments. It is an enormous privilege to be part of this ‘secret environment’ of people. Feeling that privilege brings the joy.

We have to remember that we are not just serving, but also learning. The people who are suffering the most, you can learn from that a lot. You will always learn more than you think, even from the darkest moments.

Because you cannot romanticize the lessons you can learn from engaging with poor people. There is always sin, failure, betrayal, wrongdoing and violence. Actual caritas means that peace is greater that violence. Forgiveness is greater than failure.

The will of doing good, is greater than the will of doing evil.

The only thing the people here at the conference are trying to do is organize this idea.

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AN ESSAY ON CARITAS AS THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

Photo Lotte van Elp

CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

Close of the conference

Introduction The conference, organized to celebrate 100 years of commitment in and by the Dutch community through Cordaid and its predecessors to the poor and marginalized, took its inspiration from Evangelii Gaudium, the exhortatio of Pope Francis. And more specifically from paragraph 87, in which the pope writes: “Today, when the networks and means of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a ‘mystique’ of living together, of mingling and encountering, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage.” The notion of mystique is important. Not to make sorority a vague concept of feeling, hard to grasp and open to everyone’s individualist understanding, but because our fraternity is rooted in the mystique of our relationship with God and his primordial love for men and because sorority is a deeper foundations of our relationship than a set of rules and laws, of entitlements and redistribution.

Real fraternity, although it expresses itself in concrete commitments and sharing, has a deeper source of inspiration that 1

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Sorority and fraternity are used interchangeably and should be understood as including men and women.

belongs also to the domain of prayer and meditation.

In this paragraph the pope establishes the connection with the real world of internet and social media, where we can connect ourselves to others by two mouse-clicks. As Caritas we are challenged to find new ways to embrace this new reality with all the opportunities it offers and at the same time keep the mystical dimension of sorority alive. The conference tried to connect history with future, using the actual presence of Caritas in the day to day reality of people as the connection between our history, the sources of our inspiration and the future that challenges us to represent Caritas as being old and new and able to renew itself constantly as ever new response of God to the world.

At the conference we shared our spiritual sources and our concrete, real life experiences. We didn’t pay much attention to rules and regulations and financial matters.

This essay is a reflection on this gathering. It is not a report and should not be seen like that. At the invitation of Cordaid I participated in the conference and wrote this essay, reflecting about the sharing and inspiration of the conference and using my experience of ten years in the leadership of Cordaid.

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CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

1. Caritas, core of Christian faith and of Catholic social teaching Caritas is not one of the many subjects of the Christian faith, it is the core of it. Countless times Jesus, the evangelists, the writers of the letters in the New Testament (Paul, Peter, Jacob, John) are referring to caritas as the essence of the faith. Jesus presents the double commandment as the fulfillment of the Mosaic law and the messages of the Prophets (Matthew 22:36-40 cf Mc 12:29-31 and Lc 10:27). The cross on Good Friday is presented as an act of endless love of God for mankind. This act of love of the cross has shaped the understanding of love in the Christian faith in a fundamental way: the notion of self-giving has become a fundamental aspect of caritas. Caritas is not only about the other, it is also about us: we are fully part of caritas.

The long history of the Catholic Church has showed the practice of caritas in the life of martyrs and saints and so many ordinary Catholics who lived their faith by self-giving. The many missionaries who went abroad and committed themselves fully to serve unknown and ‘strange’ people were living examples. The example of Dutch missionaries is instructive: Between 1900 and 1940 10% of them died before they reached the age of 40. Being Caritas is being at the heart of the faithcommunity and at the same time presenting this essential aspect of the faith in society with all its diversity.

For Caritas organizations this brings a great challenge and a great responsibility: the challenge of being able to connect faith and society and the responsibility as the very visible representation of the church to witness the essence of the faith.

The power of Catholic Social teaching Caritas organizations are guided in their task of representing the essence of the faith in society by the Catholic social teaching that has been developed since the mid-nineteenth century. Driven by new and urgent social questions in the industrializing societies of Western Europe, the development of this Catholic social teaching started and the encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII (1891) became the basis on which this Catholic social teaching developed. The title ‘Rerum Novarum’ explains the status of Catholic social teaching as response: it deals with new issues in society that challenges Catholics to find answers based on their Catholic faith. Catholic social teaching is an ever developing body of knowledge, experience and insights that supports Catholic people, communities and organizations to take position in social, political and economic developments.

Over the last twenty years we have witnessed a rapid development of Catholic social teaching by the magisterium of the Catholic Church. Pope John XXIII contributed by Mater et Magistra and by Pacem in terries, Pope Paul VI wrote with Populorum Progressio the cornerstone for the commitment of Catholic organizations to development. Pope John Paul II wrote several encyclicals (a.o. Centesimum Annum and Sollicitudo rei Socialis) about Catholic social teaching and commissioned the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which was published in 2004. Pope Benedict XVI laid a strong theological foundation for the notion of caritas by his two encyclicals ‘Deus Caritas Est’ and ‘Caritas in Veritate’ and Pope Francis, continuing the work of his predecessors, put emphasis on the practice of caritas and the need for policies based on caritas.

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This rapidly growing body of Catholic social teaching is supporting Caritas agencies to position themselves in society and in societal debates. At the same time Catholic social teaching consists mainly of principles and values. It is up to Caritas agencies to apply these principles in the concrete reality of society and the political, social and economic debates.

Taking position in the debate about concrete measures to keep climate change under control, to address the problems of inequality, or how to develop a social safety net to protect the poor and vulnerable in society and assure a life in dignity, is still the responsibility of Caritas agencies. And the answer is never identical in the different realities of fragile states like South Sudan or Afghanistan, European welfare states like Germany or the Netherlands, or emerging countries like Brazil or India.

This makes Caritas organizations important as organizations that contribute to Catholic social teaching: their experiences and positions are offering building blocks for the constant development of Catholic social teaching.

It is up to Caritas agencies to apply these principles in the concrete reality of society and the political, social and economic debates.

2. Caritas: the universal and contextual presence of God The main challenge for Caritas organizations is to understand their role and relationship in a new way. Too often caritas is seen as an act of giving to those in need and by that framing a relationship between those who have and those who have not.

It brings about a language of lacking and providing. In his paper for the conference Prof. Dr. Erik Borgman contends: “Caritas is seen as additional support for those who cannot properly support themselves, either because there is a problem in the mechanisms of society or because certain persons or groups lack something they need.” It is important to rethink this framing because it seems to imply that we have to add something that is not there. Basically we have to understand the caritas as God’s presence in the world. In that sense there is no lack of caritas in the world, God’s presence is not limited to certain people and communities, certain parts and places of the world. His universal presence is at the basis of our being.

“Society comes into existence and is maintained because people are inclined to caritas. Living together in community as brothers and sisters is caritas incarnate (cf. Caritas in Veritate

by Pope Benedict XVI, no. 19)” as Borgman rightly stated in his paper. In Catholic anthropology, the capacity for caritas is a basic human ability, deeply engrained in us by being created in the image of God. Human weakness, the reality of sin and the flaws in society do not destroy this basic human capacity for caritas. From this basic belief in the capacity of people two important principles originate; the first is that everyone has something to contribute, even more: society is missing out when we do not create an environment in which every women and man can contribute to the community.

The second is that we don’t need to add something that is already there. We don’t have to bring in caritas as a quality of society, caritas is already present (as a basis).

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Caritas is at the very beginning and at the very end of society.

The approach to caritas as providing to those who are lacking is also problematic because it makes caritas in essence a political issue and part of negotiations about what is ‘really’ needed, who deserves support and who does not, and what conditions should be implemented for the provision of goods and services.

Later on I will reflect on the position of Caritas organizations in the political realm of their society, but it is important to note that there is caritas before any political discourse. Pope Francis made that very clear during his visit to Lampedusa in 2013, calling on the international community to take care of the boats refugees in the Mediterranean. Commentators criticized the Pope for being naïve and not understanding the political reality. I believe the Pope wanted to make clear that caritas is a fundamental call to mankind, before any political argument or debate. God’s presence in the world and his presence in every human being is primordial to any political debate. If caritas becomes part of political negotiations and political deal-making, it’s essence as God’s presence in the world recedes to the background.

I believe the Pope wanted to make clear that caritas is a fundamental call to mankind, before any political argument or debate.

Caritas is not only at the very beginning of every societal debate, it is also there at the very end. In the encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’ pope Benedict XVI stated ‘Love – Caritas – will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the state so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love’ (DCE 28). Our efforts to build a well functioning society will not make caritas redundant. For Caritas organizations it is important to keep both aspects of Caritas in mind: they are living the fundamental and the ultimate of human society.

This reality of the primordial presence of caritas is very visible in times of disaster and crisis: flooding in India and Bangladesh, hurricanes in Central America, drought in the Horn of Africa, civil war in Syria. These tragic events are often seen as moments of need, where there is need to provide goods and services for people who are lacking. The reality of crisis and disaster is that the first response is by people and communities themselves who offer what they have and provide food, shelter, water, care to those who are affected by disaster and crisis.

Next comes aid from outside, national or international.

We most of the time focus on all the outside aid coming from abroad, impressive logistical operations, huge stocks of goods and services, accompanied by international media, and are forgetting the invisible but decisive mutual support given by local communities themselves.

A second experience relates to a visit I paid in 2008 to a rural community in Zambia, affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic. In the local parish people were taking care of each other; for example by visiting a couple of grandparents with orphaned grandchildren, a single mother or a child headed household 40

CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

twice a week. I asked one of the volunteers how they could manage to contribute to the needs of these people in face of their own struggle in times of scarcity and shortage. ‘We are sharing what we have, even if we ourselves have nothing’, she replied. Thus caritas challenges us to be humble: we assign ourselves second place, while people and communities are first, thereby living caritas as God’s presence in the world. Based on this we have to realize that we build on what is already there.

Not only donor Caritas organizations should be aware of that, every act of caritas on the diocesan or national level, should be aware of this ‘being second’.

During the conference, John Ashworth staff member of the South Sudan bishops conference questioned aid organizations’ commitment to the poor by questioning the way aid agencies are restricting themselves by all sorts of rules and security regulations in their work for the poor. In times of crisis they withdraw to safe areas or restrict the operations and movements of their staff. How can we relate ourselves to the poor if we are leaving or abstaining in moments of crisis? Perhaps we can learn something from firefighters: their mission is to save lives and to rescue people, but they also know that they can’t fulfill their mission by putting themselves too much at risk: a dead or wounded firefighter is not very capable of rescuing people. But the overkill in attention to security by aid-agencies is hampering them in really engaging with those who are suffering.

Caritas: living the reality of the context The conference made us aware of the contextual reality of living caritas. The three papers from different continents highlighted the different realities in which Caritas operates and the different challenges Caritas organizations are facing.

Contextuality is a fundamental aspect of our Christian faith.

Christ came in this world at a historic moment and in a distinct geography. He connected himself with our history and shared our life in the contingent reality of the Jewish community, living in that specific part of the Mediterranean under the oppression of the Roman Empire. God didn’t choose to deliver his message of love as an abstract doctrine, disconnected from space and time. It was this concrete historic context that created the framework for the wording of his messages, his parables in order to make them understandable and touching a heartstring in his audience.

Therefore Caritas is always contextual and historic and challenged to find answers and images that are understandable for the audience, living in a certain space and time in history. The everlasting love of God, for whom there is an everlasting ‘Now’, requires us to live Caritas in the historic reality. That’s also part of the mystique of fraternity: of being able to connect ourselves with other people and future generations beyond the borders of time and space. That’s not an easy task as it requires us to leave our comfort zone and open ourselves up to the historic reality of the other.

3. Caritas: relationship is the essence Caritas organizations are part of the ‘diakonia’ of the church.

From the earliest times of the Church it was recognized that being a community (breaking bread and sharing a cup of wine) is not complete without taking care of the practical needs of

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CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

Photo Lotte van Elp

taking action to solve. In disasters, (hurricanes, tsunami’s, earthquakes) we often forget to mourn and sit with the people to feel what the loss of loved ones and the destruction of lives and goods means, before starting to help and rebuild.

Compassion as a virtue is the capacity to be open to the human dignity of every person.

Church service with the conference participants

the community. The apostles in Jerusalem decided to appoint deacons to take care of needs of the widows, who were marginalized and neglected in the community (Acts 6:1-6). Building on this tradition, Caritas organizations are in essence practitioners in the care for people who are marginalized in society. In this context, relating to those in need is the essence and the starting point of Caritas. I believe that a threefold relationship is essential for Caritas agencies. First the relation with the marginalized and poor, secondly the relationship with society at large and thirdly the relationship with each other in the Caritas family. a. Relating tot the marginalized and poor The deaconship as established by the Apostles talks about the widows of the Hellenistic Jews being overlooked at the distribution of food. Two aspects stands out: the fact of a group being marginalized and not considered as full members of the community and the reality that they were ‘foreigners’ (and thus ‘others’), the widows of the Hellenistic Jews, who were overlooked. The widows stand for those who at that time, but also before and ever since, were not important in society, as the ones without political, social or economic power in society: the migrants and refugees of today, the countless people living in the slums of our megacities, the small subsistence farmers whose economic position is marginal. In a world where in general you are counted because of your economic power, your profile in newspapers and media, your political influence, the widow is everywhere. Caritas is therefore a counterculture in highlighting their human dignity and their contribution to humanity. We believe that all the distinctions we make between powerful and powerless, rich and poor, famous and unknown, are our – human – distinctions. God doesn’t make these distinctions: every human being is equally important to Him. In the relationship with the marginalized the quality of compassion as being able to feel their pain is crucial.

Compassion is much more than feeling sorry for what’s happening to others. Compassion means also descending into one’s own pain and suffering (even if it seems to be different in magnitude or impact) to try to understand what is happening to the other. Compassion is the act of mourning before we are

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It is based on this compassion that solidarity is required.

Where compassion is an eye to eye relationship between Caritas and the marginalized, solidarity is the movement in which we ask together what is needed. This is the basis for a communal effort to change their marginalized position.

This is almost always a double process of providing goods and/or services that are required and at the same time bringing about the necessary social change to break the circle of marginalization.

Without fraternity, solidarity can be patronizing and top down.

Solidarity and fraternity, they go side by side in the relationship of Caritas organizations with the marginalized. Without fraternity, solidarity can be patronizing and top down. Sorority turns solidarity into a joint effort where each offers her or his capacities and means.

Sorority is closely connected to, what in Catholic social teaching is called, subsidiarity: in sorority we look towards each other in a complementary way: what are our distinct capacities? Where and how do I have to sustain him/her? Where and how does (s)he need to sustain me? Providing goods and services, working for societal change is always to be done in the spirit of fraternity: who can contribute what and, based on the subsidiarity principle, Caritas organizations should never take the role the marginalized themselves could take. b. Relating tot society at large Caritas requires a relationship with society. The marginalized are not isolated individuals, they exist in a broader society, which denies them full membership. Moreover: their marginal position is due to the processes of exclusion in community and society. Caritas builds its relationship with society from the perspective of the marginalized: we look at society through their eyes to find the root causes of marginalization and impoverishment. We all know that it is a huge challenge to change the root causes of marginalization. Power structures, long established social and cultural patterns are decisive and to change them requires a long-term joint commitment. In this solidarity Caritas commits itself to this long-term engagement with society to advocate for the plight of the poor and marginalized.

This engagement with society and with the social, political and economic structures in society, requires a balancing act, in which the relationship with the marginalized remains the primordial and guiding one. Caritas enters politics to advocate for the poor, but is ever critical of it. In politics a compromise as a process of give and take is often portrayed as being equal to the attainment of the goal. Caritas can never underwrite this view, a compromise regarding the marginalized can only ever be (seen as) the start of the next round of engagement.

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CARITAS: THE MYSTIQUE OF FRATERNITY AND SORORITY

c. Relating to the Caritas family Being together in the Caritas network is strengthening the commitment of each of us. Therefore the quality of the relationship, beyond the formal and juridical connection, is of paramount importance for Caritas. This requires a culture of fraternity as the basis of our being together as Caritas. Sorority means that we are eagerly looking for the contribution of every part of the family to the whole of the family. As contended, Catholic social teaching believes that every person and every community has something to contribute. Unless we will build on that fraternity, Caritas will not live up to the potentials of its strong international network. The Caritas family is one of the largest, if not the largest global network of agencies that have committed themselves to the plight of the marginalized and the poor. Perhaps not in size or budget, but in any case in rootedness: there is no international network that is so deeply rooted into communities and societies (parish, diocese, national level) as the Caritas network. At the same time issues of poverty and marginalization have a global component: because of the interconnectedness of the world (security, economy, politics), decisions taken by governments, multinational corporations and financial institutions in Bejing or London are affecting slums and rural communities in India or Colombia. In a globalizing world the value of the network can hardly be overestimated.

Caritas is still struggling with the donor recipient model that has become part of the reality of the internal relations within the family. And as most of the donor Caritas agencies are based in Western Europe and North America, the dominant “donor culture” in the Global North is part of the reality of these agencies. In that culture, especially after 2000, notions like control, predictability, accountability and value for money are the dominant traits. They are called on to ensure that every penny is well spent and that it is possible to trace the money in order to guarantee that there is no mismanagement of funds.

Although the critique on this approach is very much directed towards governmental and multilateral institutions, its is much deeper engrained in societies of the Global North: also individual donors of northern Caritas agencies are requiring such an approach of their agencies. It creates the feeling in the Caritas agencies of the Global South that they have to sing according to the tune of the Northern colleagues. There is an urgent need for Caritas to overcome this problem, acknowledging that the current attitude in donor-countries will not rapidly change. And acknowledging that also for people in the Global South and for the constituencies of the Caritas agencies in the Global South, proper spending of available resources is self-evident and necessary. Already the Confederation is implementing standards on reporting and financial management in order to get a more common language and compatible systems for exchange between Caritas agencies. Besides that, 42

Photo Lotte van Elp

During the conference Bishop Hector Fabio from Colombia presented a concrete example of the Colombian church and its engagement with the political and military powers in the country to protect the communities that are suffering from economic (mining) and military violence. It’s a community that got displaced in 1997 by paramilitary forces and is seeking return in dignity since. Hector presented the long road of engagement with the different authorities and powers.

A wall filled with inspirational quotes

Caritas agencies from the Global South and the Global North should increasingly form consortia for programs together, thereby really sharing the responsibility for planning and implementation. It will foster the understanding of Caritas agencies in the Global South of the reality of governmental, multilateral and private donors. As an expression of sorority this will also lead to a better sharing of responsibility for program implementation. This shared responsibility will break the model where one agency finances and the other implements the program, or the model of northern agencies taking over the implementation of programs in the Global South.

Shared responsibility for the whole process, from tendering, to planning, to implementing, to reporting will deepen the mutual understanding and strengthen the internal cohesion in the Caritas family.

Being the advocate of the marginalized, being advocate of a counterculture, puts Caritas agencies sometimes under pressure. Solidarity is therefore the second important aspect of the relationship between Caritas agencies. Support can manifest, for example, as political, financial, or through publicity. The work of Caritas in Latin America about the rights of people, marginalized by mining activities needs the support of Caritas agencies elsewhere, in countries where mining and oil companies are based or where they are marketing their products. In a globalized world this joint international action is necessary to have positive impact on the life of the poor and marginalized. With its international network and its roots in society, Caritas is well equipped to have this international leverage.

4. Caritas: faith, development and aid In their day-to-day practice, Caritas organizations are involved in development and aid activities: for the elderly in Eastern Europe, for the boat-refugees in Italy and Spain, for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, for the indigenous population in Guatemala, for those affected by the HIV/Aids in Sub Sahara Africa. They were involved in these activities long before the political discourse about development and aid started.

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The legacy of the missionaries The missionaries who went abroad and who did much more than preaching the gospel, are widely seen as predecessors of the development sector. They contributed to education and health, supported communities and organized cooperatives.

The parishes they founded were more than houses for prayer and to celebrate the Eucharist, they became centers of social and communal life and starting points for all sorts of initiatives. Even though they were seen as belonging to the colonial powers, their commitment to sharing the life of the poor, made them different from the colonial bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, owning mines and plantations. With their efforts in education they contributed to the formation of a new, self-conscious generation that challenged the colonial powers and struggled for independence. It is impressive to see how many young leaders of the independence movement in these countries got their education at Catholic schools.

Governments taking responsibility for development After World War II the efforts for development became the responsibility of governments. In 1949 in his inaugural address President Harry Truman launched a program for development.

He called on the world to join hands to solve the problem of misery and poverty: “Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselves can the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is the right of all people.” It was the first call for a concerted effort by the international community to contribute to the fight against poverty. In the first decade it was a parallel process side by side with colonialism, but after the ‘wave of independence’ in the fifties and the beginning of the sixties, development became the paradigm for this new form of international cooperation. Since then it has been a cornerstone of multilateralism and in 1970 the donor countries of the OECD set the standard of the contribution to development by governments at 0,7% of GNP. Although very few countries met this standard, it remained a beacon in the debate about development and about the responsibility of the rich part of the world. In the beginning the role of faith-based organizations and the tradition of missionaries was still visible in development. In the Netherlands the faith-based organizations with their network of missionaries, were wholeheartedly accepted as partners for the government in the implementation of the development policies.

The involvement of governments in Western Europe in development organization made development cooperation part of the regular political debate in government and society. And the broadening of the development agenda (infrastructure, knowledge and technology, macro-economic policies) carried it far beyond the reach and competence of the religious organizations. The transformation of Western European societies by secularization loosened the connection with religion and with faith-based organizations and institutions. When in the nineties the New Public Management took hold in governments of Western Europe with its emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency, the connection with faith and religious inspiration almost disappeared. The development sector became increasingly dominated by the secular mainstream of donor societies. The distance between the development world and the world of faith deepened further at the Cairo conference Population and Development about the sexual and

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reproductive rights. The HIV/Aids pandemic exacerbated the tensions, especially with the Catholic Church even though Caritas Internationalis and UN-Aids signed a memorandum of understanding to show their commitment and collaboration in the fight against the disease and in their care for those infected and affected and the ground much of the work was done by faith-based health and community organizations.

In fifty years the landscape of development changed from being dominated by faith-based actors to being dominated by secular actors although faith-based communities are doing much of the work on the ground in the Global South and are relatively overrepresented in the supporters of development agencies in the Global North.

Caritas’ values to the globalizing world I believe Caritas brings in a couple of fundamental values and practices that will be crucial for the future of development and provide an answer for the challenges we are facing in the globalizing world of today. a. Competition and individualism: the community.

The founding moment of the Christian faith is the moment when Jesus gathered his disciples around the table and shared in bread and wine his body and his soul. Being a community is the decisive paradigm of our faith. In the community of Christ we are overcoming our individuality and sharing is our basic attitude. In history our Church has shown to be able to be inclusive to people from other cultures and religions. The services of Catholic communities (health, education, social services) are open for all people, irrespective of their religion, ideology or political affiliation. That is the counterculture in today’s world, where individualism and competition are the dominant paradigms for social and economic life.

The biggest challenges in development are to overcome the deep cleavages in societies, between different ethnic groups, between different religions, between dominant and marginalized parts of society. And the struggle for resources, for the greatest share of the pie is dividing people and pitting interests against each other. A new culture of community is urgently needed and I believe the inspiration and experience of Caritas has something to offer.

The struggle for resources, for the greatest share of the pie, is dividing people. b. Increasing inequality: equal before God No doubt that inequality is one of the most threatening trends in nowadays world. Even if we have achieved to lift hundreds of millions out of abject poverty, we should not close our eyes for the rising inequality. Inequality concerns not only a quanti­ tative issues of wealth and income, it is increasingly associated with disconnections in society. The global elites are a caste, living in gated communities and resorts, discussing their global economic and political interests in Bejing, London and New York, not caring about the poor and marginalized. As a response to this inequality the Christian faith stresses the equality of man before God. This is quite radical because it inevitably leads us to the conclusion that, in the eyes of God, 43

the pope and a 82-year old women suffering from dementia are equal and that a nameless mother in the slums of Calcutta is, in His eyes, equal to any world-famous politician or artist. We as humans are making all kinds of distinctions, we are ranking people (most famous artist, best politician, most read author) but these are ours, not His distinctions (Jes 55:8-9). We as Catholics are always struggling with equality: as an organization with hierarchy and property we run the risk to lose sight of this fundamental value in our church. But there are numerous Catholics for whom equality is a guiding value in their lives. Caritas can contribute to the struggle against inequality by renewing this inspiration of equality in the present. c. Financialization: the good life Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Populorum Progression wrote “the development we speak of here cannot be restricted to economic growth alone.” Since then and especially since the beginning of the 1990’s we have seen an ever increasing financialization and economization of development. Life has been reduced to economic and financial figures, GDP has become the only reference of development. In this respect it is worthwhile to reflect what Benedict XVI said in Caritas in Veritate: “Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension.”

Following the tradition set by Paul VI, the Compendium of the Social Teaching talks about a new and integral humanism that puts the whole of man at the center and doesn’t reduce man tot the ‘homo economicus.’ Against that process of reductionism Caritas puts the concept of the ‘good life’ as a holistic paradigm that looks at man in all his and her capacities. This will become all the more urgent in a world that is facing scarcities in food, raw materials and clean water. If we can only define our well-being in financial and economic terms and growth in income is our single yardstick to measure development, our planet will not survive. In the Catholic tradition the good life is based on the pillars of the virtues (faith, hope, love, temperance, prudence, justice and courage). They show that there is more in life to aim for. I believe that this holistic concept of the good life is an important contribution by Caritas living its Catholic inspiration. d. The end of history: the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus Christ in his parables has repeatedly presented the Kingdom of Heaven as what we are meant for: it’s the future God has prepared for us. This belief in a God given future makes Caritas critical of the status quo. Caritas believes that there is a better world possible and that we should not be satisfied with the world as it is. Caritas is deeply critical of the triumphant ‘end of history’ culture that is visible in the Global North: satisfied with the current political, social and economic system we declare it ‘for eternity’ to be the best solution to organize society. In such an attitude the poor and marginalized are seen as collateral damage, the inevitable price we have to pay for prosperity. Caritas can never be satisfied with such a complacent culture of what is. It will always look at the marginalized as their reference.

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Caritas is deeply critical of the triumphant ‘end of history’ culture that is visible in the Global North.

The post-2015 development agenda 2015 will mark an important change in the perspective on development. Until now our notion of development was understood as an agenda for the global South. The UN declared more than once a ‘development decade’, drawing attention to specific needs of the developing world. Also the Millennium Development Goals were about the Global South as object of the agenda. It seems that the post-2015 agenda will be a real global one referring to the global interconnectedness of our most challenging problems (food, climate, energy, water) and the interwoven reality of people and communities around the world. That will create new opportunities for Caritas to act as a global network, living its mission in the Global North and the Global South as an undivided one for the whole of humanity.

Photo Lotte van Elp

CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

A cemetery behind the conference venue in Vught

5. Caritas: dialogue in a globalizing world The interconnected world of today and tomorrow will challenge Caritas to rethink its role and contribution. Cordaid with its history of 100 years wouldn’t have existed anymore if it would have not been able to be responsive to new circumstances and to translate its values of compassion, solidarity and fraternity to new times. The participants at the Caritas conference were well aware of the deep changes happening in our world.

In the interconnected world the notion of dialogue will be central for Caritas. The interconnected world is also a more intermingled world were homogeneous societies are no longer existing. I myself experienced that by visiting countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the last ten years and by looking at Western Europe today. Conflict, war and migration (internal and abroad) have changed the structure of societies.

I believe Caritas needs to develop the dialogue in three directions:

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CARITAS AS A COUNTERCULTURE TO THE GLOBALIZATION OF INDIFFERENCE

But, different from the past, when missionaries entered into rather homogeneous societies to bring their message, we are now facing a world of heterogeneity. More than once that heterogeneity is the consequence of push-forces like conflicts and wars or migration in search for a better future: people are uprooted and are struggling to find new roots in a new society.

We are living in societies and nations of minorities facing tensions between groups, competing for political or economic power or aiming for cultural dominance. Discrimination and relegation to second-class citizenship is part of the social reality of many. In that reality Caritas has a new challenge to invest in the dialogue with different cultures and religions in the way missionaries did: open to listen and to understand in order to connect and to ensure that the distinctions do not become barriers that prevent people from building communities. Especially where religious diversity is instrumental for power-clashes, Caritas has the obligation to invest in dialogue to bridge the divides. b. The dialogue with the secular society Over the last 50 years Caritas is challenged by the new reality of secularization. Different from the dialogue between religions which is a dialogue with a common ground in spirituality and understanding life as connected to a reality that surpasses the natural world, the dialogue with secular society has no such common ground. The Catholic Church has developed a rather negative picture of the secular world as a world of negations: negating the word of God, negating natural law, negating the sanctity of life. The other way round the secular world of Western Europe has perceived the Catholic Church in negative terms: anti-modern, anti-progress, antitechnology. This divide obscures the reality. For example, the Atlas of European Values, a survey amongst European citizens, found that more than 85% of Europeans see faithfulness as the most important factor for a good marriage. Having an affair is acceptable only to 2,5% of the Europeans. The secular values, thus, don’t (always) deviate significantly from the previous religious ones. It’s just one example of many that puts nuances to the overarching picture of the divide in the secular world.

There is important work to be done to break the stereotypes on both sides. Caritas should commit itself to starting this stereotype-breaking dialogue. c. The dialogue with other members of civil society.

Caritas is part of the broader civil society. The huge challenges of the globalizing world like climate change, food security, and the increasing problem of inequality urges civil society to be a

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Photo Lotte van Elp

a. The intercultural and interreligious dialogue As a missionary Church the Catholic Church has a long experience of connecting to other faiths and cultures. It is exactly that capacity that made the Catholic Church become a true global church, rooted in a wide array of cultures. Even if the European / Mediterranean tradition of theology, philosophy and culture marked Christianity, the message of Jesus Christ as redeemer proved to be a liberating message for people living in the diversity of cultures of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Without loosing the power of the message, missionaries were able to connect to these cultures, find commonalities, new images and new language in order to make this message understandable in new, unknown circumstances.

Breakout sessions to enrich the group discussion

countervailing actor to represent citizens, especially the marginalized and the poor, in the debate with governments and markets. The integration of markets and the way governments are increasingly organizing their interests at multi­ lateral level, requires a civil society that is able to organize itself. As one of the largest global networks Caritas has an important role to play in this regard. As explained before the values of Caritas (community, equality, the good life, God’s kingdom) are important values that should be the cornerstones in the dialogue to find the answers to these global challenges.

Caritas must make itself heard among the voices of global civil society.

6. Caritas: Professionalism and spirituality; faith and reason In his encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’ Benedict XVI called Caritas agencies to be professional: ‘Individuals who care for those in need must be professionally competent’. That is a primary and a fundamental requirement, but it is not sufficient: a ‘formation of the heart is needed’ to provide the humanity that is much needed. (DCE 31).

Over the last decade the debate about professionalism and spirituality has frequently surfaced. From time tot time this debate seemed to become a zero-sum debate: stressing professionalism goes at the cost of spirituality and emphasizing spirituality is doing away with professionalism. This zero-sum aspect is perhaps the most worrisome in this debate. I believe this debate is part of dialogue between the faith and reason.

Thomas Aquinas was deeply convinced that faith and reason were not in opposition to each other. Being both human capacities, gifts of God, humanity would flourish if both capacities would be fully developed. Since then, the Catholic Church has committed itself to this faith and reason dialogue.

John Paul II wrote an encyclical about this issue and Benedict XVI made it a recurrent theme in his addresses at universities and to political audiences.

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There has been well- justified critics of an ‘over-the-top’ professionalism of agencies where ever more sophisticated systems are pretending to make the work of Caritas a fully controlled endeavor. Especially in development cooperation the culture of new public management in donor countries has brought about a series of monitoring and reporting, accountability and transparency systems that seems to marginalize the human and relational aspect. In this culture development seems to be a technical implementation in stead of a personal encounter. At the same time Caritas agencies are obliged to make the best of the means and resources at their disposal: the huge needs of poor and marginalized people cannot be relieved if we waste our resources.

Bringing together professionalism and spirituality is urgent to avoid that professionalism is developed that leaves spirituality and morality to outsiders, politicians, religious leaders, philosophers.

Spirituality and ethics must be at the heart of professionalism and Caritas should be the first to show that they are reconcilable.

A comparable current (and recurring?!) debate concerns the issue of business and entrepreneurship. Caritas should counter visions in which business and entrepreneurship are seen as domains where there is no place for spirituality and morality, as if they are inherently incompatible. The tradition of Catholic social teaching has consistently contended that business and ethics should go together at the center of Catholic entrepreneurship and Catholic business. In face of the reality of neo-liberal globalization with its unscrupulous profit-driven ideology, Caritas should be a counterforce against the acceptance of a gap between the two.

7. Caritas: the power of an inspired global network With its 165 members and deep roots in societies and communities the global network Caritas has an opportunity to be a leading network in this global age. But its potential for a prominent position is often not realized. Sometimes even insiders look at Caritas as a weak confederation due to a lack of strong presence, strong branding, a well-established management, and planning and control systems. Compared to other large international agencies (Worldvision, Save the Children, Oxfam) Caritas appears to be a weak network, at least not living up to its potential as global network. We should believe in the power of the Caritas network. In global civil society a process of isomorphism will copy what has happened in the corporate sector were large multinational corporations (Apple, Nike, Google) have established themselves with a world-spanning presence and brand. They are powerful and have a large outreach. With a coherent strategy, global planning and control systems and with consolidated results they impress the audience and the media. That model of success is tempting.

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I believe Caritas should believe in the power of its identity as a network that is not held together by top-down strategies, planning and control and rolling out of programs all over the globe. Our roots in local communities and our subsidiarity principle, which gives space to national, diocesan and local Caritas agencies to be responsive to the context, should be the power of Caritas. Not the systems are keeping us together but values and inspiration, symbols and rituals. We as participants of the Caritas conference experienced that in our daily prayers and in celebrating the Eucharist. Exploring and developing the richness of our own identity instead of looking at the models of others, will strengthen our ability to contribute to the global plight of the poor and marginalized.

8. Challenges and opportunities Caritas has a great opportunity to be one of the protagonists of a culture of compassion and solidarity in the globalizing world, that faces indifference and inequality. In the gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples: ‘ behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest’ (John 4:35). There is a broad shared yearning for justice and for a culture in which everyone counts. By its worldwide presence, its deep roots in societies and communities and its spiritual richness, Caritas has the opportunity to be one of the leaders in contributing to the true humanism that John Paul VI in Populorum Progessio called for. I believe there are three main challenges: ▪▪ To make the interreligious and intercultural dialogue and the dialogue with the secular world the cornerstone of Caritas presence in the world. We need to find common ground with other religions, other cultures and the secular world to live our calling as counterforce against the indifference and inequality.

▪▪ To free ourselves from the self-torment of the Catholic church in Western Europe. Yes, the Catholic church in Western Europe is facing a steep decline, it is loosing its prominent and often dominant position, and yes, we are loosing a lot of support, including financial means. The future seems gloomy. Too often, by virtue of European branches being the financial powerful and most contributing members of Caritas, their gloom is spread in the Caritas family. We should free ourselves from that gloom and make space for the spiritual power and energy of Caritas members in other parts of the world.

▪▪ To find the right balance between professionalism and the formation of the heart. The poor and marginalized deserve the best we have and the best we can deliver by using our systems and research, but it all starts with compassion and connecting on a deep human and spiritual level.

René Grotenhuis October 2014.

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about cordaid Cordaid is based in the Netherlands and has country offices in 11 countries. It has been fighting poverty and exclusion in the world’s most fragile societies and conflictstricken area’s for a century. It delivers innovative solutions to complex problems by emphasizing sustainability and performance in projects that tackle security and justice, health and economic opportunity. Cordaid is deeply rooted in the Dutch society with more than 300,000 private donors. Cordaid is a founding member of Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE.

contact Cordaid the Netherlands Lutherse Burgwal 10 2512 CB The Hague +31(0)70-31 36 300 www.cordaid.org

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