CARITAS DA LAT NETWORK

Charity (Caritas) is an important part of the nature and mission of the Church. Indeed, the Church's nature is expressed through a responsibility that includes three activities: preaching the Word (kerygma-martyria) celebrating the Sacraments (leiturgia), serving charity (diakonia). 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. Therefore, to carry out this important mission, Caritas Dalat has been:

Building organized charity work:

Love of neighbor originates from love of God. It is first of all the responsibility of each Christian, but also the responsibility of the entire Church community. Therefore, love also needs organization, if it wants to become an orderly and sustainable service to the community, and that is why the Church established Caritas. Therefore, the Church is the subject directly responsible for charitable activities. Caritas is an organization of the Church that aims to arouse awareness of charity and love in everyone in society, thereby leading to practical activities to help each other (see TCLTY, no. 20). Caritas is organized at many different levels

-       Caritas International      => Holy See

-       National Caritas    => Conference of Bishops

-       Diocesan Caritas   => Diocesan Bishop

-       Caritas parish      => Parish priest

  • Caritas district representative board: In Diocese of Dalat, the district Caritas priest in charge and a number of lay representatives are elected to the representative board with two main roles as follows:

+ Create solidarity and bridges between parishes in the district and between diocesan Caritas and parishes

+ Develop Caritas network

        

Inviting Caritas volunteers/members to join:

Caritas Vietnam is not only a social charity organization in the usual sense, but also a Catholic organization working to help believers live the charity of Christ and proclaim the Gospel of salvation to everyone. Therefore, the global Church and the Vietnam Bishops' Conference encourage believers to participate in this activity as members. (CVN Regulations).  Caritas wishes to develop this volunteer and membership movement deeper and deeper in parishes and groups, especially for young people, and have practical activities for the movement,...

Increase capacity for parish Caritas:

To become a living and creative witness of the Gospel, Caritas members also need to learn more about a number of areas: organizational skills, protecting life, protecting the environment, Laudato Si,...

Following the example in the parable of the Good Samaritan, charitable activity with a Christian character is first of all a response to a direct urgent need in a specific situation: Whoever wants to serve those who are suffering, must be professionally trained: the helpers must be trained, so that they take the right actions at the right times and continue the care.

 

LOVE AND SERVE

“Only serving others opens my eyes to what God has done for me and how much he has loved me” (cf. MSc. God is Love, no. 18).

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)