Papa Benedetto's Revolution

At the end of May I put up 2 posts about how Papa Benedetto was trying to get Caritas International to shape up & be Catholic like it should. (here & here) Yesterday, via The Hermenutic of Continuity I came across an article that does an excellent look at what is going on in Caritas & what Papa Benedetto is doing to deal with it. (Challenges for the Caritas Network) The article was written by Matthew Hanley. In it he calls Papa Benedetto's "attempts to reform the Caritas network as revolutionary". He calls it that because the Pope is "is reasserting control over an entire area of the Church’s vital activity in agencies that have veered far off course."

Wow, talk about hitting the nail on the head.

While Hanley focuses on Caritas, he could just as easily be talking about Canada's Development + Peace or the USCCB" Campaign for Human Development. & he does bring up some interesting info about Catholic Relief Services that confirms some suspicions I have had about them for a while. Everytime I get a mailing from CRS, they seem to be permanantly in crisis mode. (& am I the only 1 sick of those angel coins?) In Africa he heard CRS refered to as "the non-Catholic Catholic Agency". OUCH!!!!! He goes on to show how much different the attitude is in the CRS HQ in Baltimore as compared to what the African Bishops really want CRS to be.

"African bishops would tell me (after my talks about AIDS) how surprising it was to hear a young Western CRS employee speak the common Catholic language, whereas my superiors back in Baltimore told me that I would change my thinking about the way we should approach AIDS prevention – that I’d begin to oppose Church teachings – once I spent yet more time in Africa." (emphasis mine)

The African Bishops want Catholic teaching upheld, yet what purports to be a Catholic organization is encouraging dissent from Catholic teachings. This pretty much confirms my decision to no longer give to CRS & stick with a couple other private "Catholic" organizations that work with groups that do uphold Catholic teaching.

The article goes on to take a look at the problems with Caritas, problems that equally apply to CCHD, CRS & D+P, as well as how to correct them. Rather than repeat what he says, I suggest following the link below to read the entire piece.

But I will add that I agree with his conclusion wholeheartedly. Papa Benedetto has made it clear how Catholic charitable organizations are supposed to operate. CRS et al would do well to pay attention to & impliment "Benedict’s original and enlightening vision of charity." & espicially to uphold & promote the “non-negotiables.”

As Hanley says: "The “non-negotiables” may represent sources of contention between Catholics and the rest of the “development community”, but they are, in fact, nothing short of indispensible to authentic human development. Catholic charities need to be led by people who really believe that." I can add nothing more to that.
Read the entire article here: Challenges for the Caritas Network