Charities must keep the faith

Pope Benedict XVI tells Catholic agencies not to lose their Catholic identity in order to obtain secular funding
BY CHRISTINA FARRELL
CATHOLIC charities in Britain are under pressure to preserve their spiritual identity after Pope Benedict XVI warned Church charities not to fall into the trap of secularisation in his first encyclical.
In emphatic terms the Pope states that Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and theologies. "The Christian's programme," he says, "is a heart which sees."
Deus Caritas Est makes it clear that the Trinity is at the very heart of charity as a responsibility of the Church and it is this foundation which the Pope insists should govern all subsequent actions.
He reminds Catholics that the Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and preaching of the Gospel and offers the example of saints such as St Lawrence, who alluded to the poor as the real treasure of the Church. For this reason, charity is not a welfare activity "which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being".
But he also says that there is "much that is mistaken" in the argument that we need a new world order in which all receive an equitable share of the world's resources and no longer have to depend on charity.
Benedict appears to issue a firm warning against the politicisation of charitable efforts insisting that they should, instead, be in the mould of the Good Samaritan, selfless and giving.
"The just ordering of society and the state is a central responsibility of politics," he writes. "The state may not impose religion, yet it must guarantee religious freedom and harmony between the followers of different religions. For her part the Church, as the social expression of Christian faith, has a proper independence and is structured on the basis of her faith as a community which the state must recognise. The two spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated."
However, the Pope offers very strong support to the Church's charitable organisations, beginning with Caritas, while noting that the work they do must not be a commandment imposed but a consequence deriving from faith, a faith that becomes active through love. He also acknowledges that the Church has a duty to inform politics and "cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice".
"The consciousness that, in Christ, God has given himself for us, even unto death, must inspire us to live no longer for ourselves but for him, and, with him, for others," he writes. John Pontifex, spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need, welcomed the Pope's observations. "It is very reasSuring that the Holy Father has praised those Catholic agencies which retain their Catholic identity," he said. "For us and for our benefactors this is a massive boost."
Editorial Comment: Page 11