When you hear the word Caritas, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of? Caritas is Latin, meaning charity, great love. Caritas is an organization within the Catholic Church whose mission is to coordinate and promote the practice of social charity. Charity (caritas) is an important part of the nature and mission of the Church.
Saint John said: "God is Love", he introduced us to the broad path of love so that we can bring God to everyone. But some people have the wrong idea about Caritas and think that to do charity work, you must have money, have medicine, have material things, have a stable life, have skills, techniques, etc. While the basic point is to express God's love to everyone through every look, sentence, smile, respectful and loving attitude that people really need in today's time.
Because the nature of the Church is expressed through a responsibility that includes three activities: preaching the Word of God, celebrating the Sacraments, and serving charity. These activities depend on each other and cannot be separated from each other. Pope Francis elaborated: "Charity is an essential part of the Church. Without charity, there is no Church. Charity expresses the love of the Church, and the Church expresses itself through charity." In the Church, all members are responsible for practicing charity, but Caritas is the organization assigned by the Church to represent the Church in this area.
The spirituality of charity aims to help Christians demonstrate God's immense love through practical actions of helping, sharing and becoming living witnesses of the Gospel through a comprehensive human life. From then on, they cooperated with everyone to build a civilization of love for their people, as well as for the human family (see TLHTXHGH, no. 580-583).
Charity is the essence of the Church and the responsibility of every Christian, not the privilege of anyone. Caritas's role is to invite more members of the Church and society to participate in alleviating the pain of their brothers and sisters. Therefore, Caritas Dalat wishes to strengthen and develop the Caritas network in parishes and dioceses within the diocesan family through activities: Helping the lonely elderly, the sick, people in difficult circumstances,... active initiatives (collecting waste, study promotion funds, days for the environment...), organizing training sessions (Environmental protection, fundraising methods...) introducing Caritas spirituality, living Laudato'Si, celebrating the 'Season of Brightness'. Create a mass to celebrate the patron saint of Caritas, an annual meeting of Caritas every year,...
I wish that Jesus' words to the lawyer, "Go and do likewise" in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), would be heard and practiced by many people in their lives.
(Sources cited: Social Doctrine of the Church, Caritas Spirituality, Caritas Mission in the Church by Father Giuse Ngo Si Dinh OP, Director of Caritas Vietnam)
