in co-operating with non-Catholic agencies, but clear guidance is coming in the New Year.
The Pope’s new apostolic letter, “On the Service of Charity,” sets out clear rules for bishops regarding their responsibility for Catholic charities. On Dec. 5, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the document, which Pope Benedict XVI said was necessary to give “adequate expression in canonical legislation” to the Church’s charitable mission.
“Pope Benedict has issued a timely reminder that the ministry of charity is essential to the very nature of the Church, just as he had earlier reminded us that ‘charity demands justice’ and ‘transcends justice,’ ” said the bishops’ statement, citing Benedict’s social justice encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
Pope Benedict released his motu proprio Nov. 30, the same day CCCB president Archbishop Richard Smith met with the national council of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. Smith welcomed the Pope’s document, noting the principles in it mirror those the bishops are already working on with Development and Peace.
The CCCB is in the final stages of drafting a document that will guide Development and Peace’s activities. It will be released in early 2013. Controversy has buffeted Development and Peace over some of its overseas partners since 2009 allegations that the development agency funded projects operated by groups, or affiliated with groups, that supported abortion.
“There are divergent opinions out there,” Smith said.
Smith said he is convinced the New Year will be a “fruitful time” for Development and Peace as the CCCB continues its collaboration with the agency the bishops founded more than 40 years ago.
Smith’s attendance at the meeting of the Development and Peace national council was a first for a CCCB president. The meeting had been arranged months before the most recent controversy involving the delay of the Development and Peace fall education campaign, Smith said. He had been invited to talk with them about Caritas in Veritate.
Smith said the meeting ended up being a roundtable discussion where members were able to ask questions about why the fall campaign was delayed and the archbishop could “dispel some misunderstanding.”
“What did become clear in those conversations is that what I’ve been reading about in the mainstream media is not representative of the broader Development and Peace membership I have seen,” Smith said.
“What I’ve seen confirmed is a real passion for the mission of Development and Peace to help out, to reach out to the poor and to advocate on their behalf. I met a real desire for them to be in communion with the bishops as they do so.”
Pope Benedict writes that Catholic charitable agencies “are required to follow Catholic principles in their activity and they may not accept commitments which could in any way affect the observance of those principles.” The document lays responsibility on the bishops to ensure Catholic charitable agencies respect the “norms of the Church’s universal and particular law as well as the intentions of the faithful” who give money to support them.