Search This Blog

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Pope Decrees....

Catholic charities must always act in accordance with Catholic teaching

Now the question is -- will they follow the decree? Remember a few years ago (2008 to be exact) when Catholic Charities of Richmond
enabled the abortion of an immigrant teenager? Refresh your memory here

LifeSiteNews reported on the decree and here's a bit from their article:
Benedict issued the Motu Proprio, “De Caritate Ministranda,” on the Church’s charitable activities after strongly hinting in recent years at his deep concern at the secularising and outright anti-Catholic trends growing within officially recognised, and lay-funded, Catholic charitable agencies. 
The document, using the formal legal language reserved for the Sovereign Pontiff when creating binding legislation for the whole Church, specifies that Catholic charitable organizations “should not limit themselves merely to collecting and distributing funds,” but exist to further Catholic religious objectives by exercising “a valuable educational function within the Christian community”. 
“The Church’s charitable activity at all levels must avoid the risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance,” Pope Benedict wrote. 
“To the extent that such activities are promoted by the hierarchy…there is a need to ensure that they are managed in conformity with the demands of the Church’s teaching and the intentions of the faithful.” 
“The collective charitable initiatives to which this Motu Proprio refers,” the pope wrote, “are required to follow Catholic principles in their activity…” 
It is ultimately up to the bishops, he said, to ensure that the staff of such agencies believe or “at least respect” Catholic teaching on all matters, and that the works undertaken are not to the “detriment of their activity and effectiveness with regard to their stated goals”.
#############################################
Ah yes, it "ultimately up to the bishops". That is always the challenge since there are bishops... and there are bishops. The ones who put love of money and human respect first will likely continue their three monkey policies of oversight. Those who love the faith will exercise more diligent care. But, frankly, I don't see things changing much unless the bureaucracy that runs Catholic Charities changes. You cannot hire liberals whose first allegiance is to liberalism and expect them to act like Catholics whose first allegiance is to God. Just look at John Carr's administration of CCHD (Catholic Campaign for Human Development). Let us hope things change under his successor.

No comments:

Post a Comment