---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Ashworth <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, May 7, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: Vatican insisting on greater
control over Caritas operations
To: Group <[email protected]>
Vatican presses Caritas on 'Catholic identity'
Vatican is insisting on greater control over Caritas operations
National Catholic Reporter May. 06, 2011
By John Thavis Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- The general assembly of Caritas Internationalis in
late May is shaping up as a defining moment for the confederation of
165 national Catholic charities, at a time when the Vatican is
insisting on greater control over Caritas operations.
The agenda of the May 22-27 meeting reflects the Vatican's moves
toward closer collaboration and supervision: On the assembly's first
full working day, four Vatican officials will speak on the crucial
topics of Catholic identity and the juridical status of Caritas
Internationalis in the universal church.
Then new statutes for the organization, prepared by a working team of
the Holy See and Caritas Internationalis, will be reviewed -- statutes
that, according to Caritas officials, would require them to consult
with the Holy See before making certain decisions and would
acknowledge the Holy See's authority over Caritas' financial and
personnel issues.
The changes have not come without tension, but Vatican sources said
that in recent talks with top officials of Caritas Internationalis the
atmosphere has vastly improved, and that there's been "a great level
of cooperation." They emphasized that the Vatican remains very
supportive of Caritas and appreciates the key role it plays in
promoting the church's social teaching and helping those in need.
The Vatican's move toward participation in the governance structures
of Caritas Internationalis, the church's worldwide aid and development
organization, is motivated in part by the organization's high public
profile.
"Caritas Internationalis, as a public entity of the church, is
authorized to speak and act for the church in the international forum.
Because of that right and duty, it needs to speak the church's
language and make sure that its activities and its agreements with
non-Catholic agencies reflect what the church teaches," said one
Vatican official.
The Vatican, recognizing that Caritas Internationalis is a
confederation of local independent charities that depend on local
bishops, also wants the bishops more directly involved in oversight
and collaboration.
Independent of its ongoing dialogue with Caritas Internationalis, the
Vatican is giving closer attention to the church's charitable
activities in general.
Catholic News Service has learned that the Vatican is currently
studying a draft document on the role and responsibility of bishops
regarding the church's charitable organizations. The draft document
has been prepared by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and is being
reviewed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and other
Vatican agencies.
Changes are expected to the text and its publication is not imminent,
in part because it touches on complicated issues, sources said. But
the project is an indication of the Vatican's increased interest in
promoting a clearer Catholic identity in the church's charitable
activities at every level.
The Vatican's concern is also reflected in its own relationship with
international agencies. Sources said, for example, that in recent
months the Vatican has, at least temporarily, suspended contributions
to certain U.N. agencies dealing with refugees, indigenous peoples and
disarmament.
The Vatican's contributions in the past were not large but were seen
as symbolic gestures of support. The new policy apparently is a
consequence of Vatican disquiet over long-standing disagreements with
the United Nations on issues such as abortion, population control and
the family.
The debate over Caritas Internationalis became public in February when
news emerged that Vatican officials had prevented the organization's
secretary-general, Lesley-Anne Knight, from seeking a second four-year
term. The Vatican withheld the approval, or "nihil obstat" ("nothing
stands in the way"), when she submitted her name as a candidate to
continue in the position.
Caritas officials, citing Knight's accomplishments, expressed deep
regret at the Vatican's decision and asked the Vatican secretary of
state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to reconsider -- but to no avail.
The move was seen as a sign that the Secretariat of State was assuming
a much more direct role in Caritas operations than in the past.
Vatican sources did not dispute that but took issue with the
suggestion that Knight's departure was an injustice. They said Knight
was a manager with a four-year contract, and the Vatican's commitment
to her ends with the expiration of her contract in May.
In recent weeks, as Caritas and Vatican officials met to prepare for
the general assembly, there's been an effort to move past that issue
and back off the rhetoric. As a result, one source said, there has
been a great deal of progress toward finding common ground.
Three candidates to replace Knight as secretary-general have been
given the "nihil obstat" by the Vatican and will stand for election by
the confederation members, sources said. They are:
* Paolo Beccegato, head of the international unit of Caritas Italy.
* Michel Roy, director of advocacy for Caritas France.
* Karel Zelenka, the Catholic Relief Services country
representative for South Africa. CRS is the U.S. bishops' aid and
development agency.
Whoever is elected will have to deal with establishing a new
relationship with Vatican officials, one that involves better dialogue
and cooperation with the Holy See, as Vatican experts put it. In their
view, Caritas Internationalis needs to understand that as a "public
juridical entity" of the church -- a status assigned Caritas in 2004
-- it functions under the administration of the Vatican.
Just what that status entails has been the subject of talks between
Caritas Internationalis and the Secretariat of State and their
respective canon law experts. A year ago, Caritas submitted to the
Vatican a new set of statutes, and the two parties began talks on
revising and adapting the canonical rules that apply to such entities.
They are still discussing the details, but Caritas officials say it's
clear that the final word belongs to the Holy See.
Vatican officials underlined that the increased Vatican supervision
foreseen by the new statutes corresponds to canon law provisions that
regulate the church's public juridical entities, including the
administration of their temporal goods.
In some ways, the legal and structural questions boil down to
different points of emphasis. As one Vatican official remarked,
"Caritas Internationalis is not a type of international democracy."
Local Caritas organizations depend on local dioceses, he said, and the
"true stakeholders" of Caritas are the bishops and the pope.
Caritas officials acknowledge that but say the structure of Caritas
has never been top-down.
"This is a confederation, and the principles of autonomy and
subsidiarity need to be at work," said one source.
Vatican officials said the new statutes will respect those principles,
and that this point will be explained and clarified at the general
assembly.
In recent years, the Vatican has been particularly concerned about
some of the cooperative ventures and working agreements Caritas
Internationalis has made with U.N. and other international agencies,
not all of which share the church's moral perspectives.
For example, in 2009 Caritas Internationalis and the U.S. Embassy to
the Vatican co-sponsored a Rome conference on church-state
partnerships to fight HIV and AIDS. Among the speakers was Michel
Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations' agency that
coordinates the global response to HIV/AIDS.
Caritas Internationalis has argued that while the church may have some
differences with the United Nations and other organizations on their
approach to AIDS, it's important to keep cooperative channels open and
make sure the church has "a seat at the table" when international AIDS
policies are discussed.
Vatican officials have also faulted some Caritas Internationalis
policy documents and publications. A 2006 document on gender
strategies, in their view, adopted the loaded or ambiguous terminology
of "gender politics" instead of expressing church teaching. Caritas
officials, who agreed with some of the objections, said the offending
document was quickly removed from circulation.
A related concern is that Caritas policy documents, while competently
done, are sometimes mistakenly seen as official pronouncements of
church teaching. Caritas Internationalis should promote its policy
positions on economic or political matters in a way that is "not
dogmatic," one Vatican official said.
Caritas officials said, however, that the organization has been
careful to consult with the Vatican on such issues. They said the only
policy document published over the past four years was one on climate
justice, which was submitted to the Secretariat of State for review
more than a year before its publication.
The new draft of the statutes addresses this issue, establishing a
formal mechanism of consultation between Caritas Internationalis and
the Vatican on advocacy documents and position papers.
On the much-discussed issue of "Catholic identity," the Vatican said
it was not asking Caritas to "proselytize" in carrying out its charity
work worldwide, but rather to always use language that reflects the
church's teaching about the human person. Caritas officials agreed but
said this was already being done, pointing to the 2010 document on
climate justice as an example.
The identity issue is also related to the way Caritas understands its
place in the universal church -- the "theological dimension" that
Vatican officials say has been somewhat neglected in the past, but
which will take center stage at the start of the upcoming general
assembly.
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-presses-caritas-catholic-identity
END
______________________
John Ashworth
Sudan Advisor
Sudan Ecumenical Forum
[email protected]
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