VATICAN CITY (CNS): A Vatican decree established new statutes and norms for Caritas Internationalis, giving Vatican offices, including the Secretariat of State, greater authority over the work of the Vatican-based umbrella group of Catholic aid agencies.
The decree strengthens the roles Vatican offices and the pope play in working with the charity confederation, including naming and approving new board members and approving its texts, contracts with foreign governments and financial transactions.
It also creates a special “support commission” of legal, technical and organisational experts named by the pope to help the organisation follow the new norms as well as canon law and the laws of Vatican City State concerning the procurement and distribution of aid, and employment of workers.
At least three members of Caritas’ executive board will be papal appointees, and Pope Benedict XVI named United States Bishop Bernard Hebda of Gaylord, Michigan, as one of them.
The general decree – signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and approved by Pope Benedict – was published by the Vatican on May 2 and went into effect the same day.
At the same time, the new statutes and internal rules of the federation were published on the Caritas website.
Prepared by the Secretary of State in conjunction with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and legal experts, the decree said it was meant to “complete and interpret” Caritas Internationalis’ juridical status and give the organisation a legal foundation and reference point for the application of the new statutes.
Caritas Internationalis president Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa said, “This is a day of joy and hope” for the organisation.
“Our new statutes and rules will modernise our work in delivering humanitarian assistance and development in service to the poor,” he said in a written statement.
“They will provide us with the framework to carry out our work as part of the mission of the Church.”
The new status formally recognised that Caritas carried out its charitable activities in the name of the Catholic Church and it meant the organisation would function under the administration of the Vatican.
Caritas Internationalis, whose original statutes were approved by the Vatican in 1951, is made up of 164 Catholic relief, development and social service agencies working in almost 200 countries.
Most of the member agencies are Caritas or relief and development agencies sponsored by national bishops’ conferences.
Cor Unum is the Vatican office responsible for co-ordinating and promoting charitable giving.
Monsignor Osvaldo Neves de Almeida, an official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, said in an explanatory statement accompanying the decree that the updated status was meant to better support the federation’s activity.
Given Caritas’ worldwide presence, international profile and that it acted in the name of the Church, the Vatican “has the task of following its activity and exercising vigilance in order that both its humanitarian and charitable action and the content of the documents that it disseminates may be in harmony with the Apostolic See and with the Church’s magisterium, and in order that it may be administered with competence and transparency”, the monsignor wrote.
According to the new norms, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will continue to give doctrinal oversight to texts that are of a moral or doctrinal nature and the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See will continue to monitor the administration of temporal goods.
The Secretariat of State will have to approve official grants coming from governments and international organisations and non-emergency aid and development projects that have been started or are being run by Caritas Internationalis.
Cor Unum and the secretariat of state will have to be notified of any agreements made with government authorities or non-governmental organisations when Caritas Internationalis responds to emergency humanitarian situations.
The new norms are part of Pope Benedict XVI’s concern over the authentic Catholic identity of Church-run or sponsored aid and development programs, and his teaching that Catholic charitable activity should not be simple philanthropy, but a reflection of Christian faith and the obligation to love others as Christ loved.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, said in a statement that the new legal framework did not apply to national Caritas organisations, which would maintain their autonomy; however, the new norms “could inspire the bishops and bishops’ conferences to eventually review their diocesan or national Caritas statutes”.
