AGM study session on CARITAS

CARITAS is a word coming from Latin and it means- LOVE or CHARITY.

CARITAS is one of the catholic church organizations or socio / pastoral charity activities.

It started at the time of creation of the world. From God’s love. Lets look at the book of Genesis. “ God from his love created a man and a woman  in his image and gave them authority over the garden. But later the man and the woman broke command. They found themselves naked and lost in the garden”. The love of God the father was, is and will be forever.

v     He sent his son Jesus Christ to come and redeem the man and the woman who have been lost.  Jesus exercised the charity , he practiced the charity. He cured the sick, gave food etc. That was the foundation of CARITAS .

From Gods love and from Jesus Christ  love. He loved his church and his people until the last consequences had been crucified to the cross.

2. The historical involvement

v     Since the first Christian communities CARITAS has been involved in relief and development.

v     Let remember the tension among the Christians. some complain that their widows and orphans were  not taken care of .

v     The apostles took a decision to stop themselves from being involved the distribution of food, and asked  the assembly to choose seven reputable men who would be responsible for charitable activities.

v     From those times till now, CARITAS is involved in many activities, programmers and projects in relief, reconstruction, rehabilitation and development.

v     The main purpose and spirit for CARITAS  is to promote, animate and help the Christians from the family to the small Christian communities, parishes and dioceses. To  help the people to show their faith through their actions. It  means to practice their charity, to love their brothers and sisters who are in need in the same that our lord Jesus Christ did.

Composition and structures

The first CARITAS in the world was created in 1897 this was CARITAS Germany.

In Africa the first CARITAS to be created was CARITAS Uganda in 1958.

Composition

CARITAS is present at all levels where the catholic church is. Starting from single families, small Christian communities , parishes ,dioceses national, zonal, regional and international level.

A.     CARITAS international is composed of 164 member organizations working in approximately 198 countries world wide.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

CARITAS international  is divided into seven regions such as :

                     Europe, Africa, Middle east, North of Africa, Asia, North America , Latin America and Oceania.

CARITAS 7 Region{ Africa, Middle east and North Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania}  

AFRICA REGION

Composition: Before 1994 – Africa synod.

Intro four zones

• Anglophone
• Iraneophone
• Lusophone
• Indian ocean islands

After the 1995 PAN African conference, CARITAS Africa decided to realign its structure accordingly with the SECAM structures, Regional Episcopal Association.

Now CARITAS Africa as 7

 CARITAS AFRICA’S

SEVEN ZONES

 CARITAS AFRICA’S

      SEVEN ZONES

ACEAC – Association of Episcopal Conference of central Africa (RDC, Burundi & Rwanda)

ACERAC- Association of Episcopal conference of central African region (Cameroun, Gabon, Congo Braza Ville, Chad, Equatorial guinea, Central African republic)

AECAWA- West Africans bishop conference association. ( Nigeria, Ghana ,Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia)

AMACEA-Association of membership of the Episcopal conference of eastern Africa. ( Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia)

CERAO- West African francophone Episcopal  conference association

CEDOI- Indian islands and Madagascar Episcopal conference association.

IMBISA-  International regional meeting of the Bishops of southern Africa.(Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe)

The governance structure

At   CARITAS international level:

• General assembly- take place every 4 years in Rome.
• Executive committee- meets once a year at CI- secretariat.
• The bureau-Meets twice a year.
• General secretariat- based in Rome –Vatican city- Pallazo San Calisto.

At African regional level

• The PAN African conference – it takes place every4 years in one of the countries chosen to host it.
• African regional commission- meets twice a year
• African executive secretariat- based in Lome –Togo
• The zones- fall together .

During the vi pan African conference held in July in Libreville –Gabon, elected new offices as follows:

• The president for the region- His Grace Archbishop Kizito Kwana- Archbishop of Kampala Uganda.
• The executive secretary for the region- Mr. Paul Samaugano from CARITAS Cameroun. Former national director.

Zonal co-ordinators

ACEAC- RDC-CARITAS

AECAWA- CHAD

AMACEA- ZAMBIA

CERAO- MAURITIUS

IMBISA- SOUTH AFRICA

MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF CARITAS INTERNATIONAL

• South Africa –( for AMACEA and IMBISA)
• RDC- ( for ACEAC and ACERAC)
• Ghana- ( for AECAWA and CERAO)
• MAURITIUS- ( CEDOI- MADAGASCAR)

CARITAS is created and presided by the bishops .

The bishop is the president of all pastoral activities in his diocese. Then he provides the charity in his diocese as the Pope presides the charity in the entire catholic church in the world.

CARITAS is not only for relief or emergency responses as a lot of us understand.

CARITAS is one of the church organ. For the socio – charitable ,pastoral actions and activities in collaboration with all other church social commissions and stakeholders for the better services to our brothers and sisters in need.

All papal encyclical letters, from Rerum Novarum of pope Leo XIII populorum progremo(pope paulVI), Solicitade reis socialis(pope John Paul II) to the first encyclical letter of the pope Benedict the XVI “ deis Caritas est” look CARITAS at both sides relief and development and not separate the two of them .

CARITAS must be one with two sections : relief and development .

Sometime  our partners create confusion and division in the our structures, conducted from their own experiences and way of working in their own countries E.G in Germany Misereor did with development  an CARITAS did with emergencies and relief. Most of the time it is not been helpful for us. We see CARITAS as one body, one commssion intergrated in our particular and local churches. They imposes on us their only structures which create more tension, misunderstanding, confusions, etc.

-When we start a partnership process, we must be clearly on the principles ahich will help both sides.

- Each CARITAS in Africa including CARITAS Zambia as members of CARITAS international, must pay stationery fees, communally. Every now and then we are facing so many difficulties on these issues. There are some CARITAS affiliates due to financial constraints that have not been paying their stationery fees for some years.

Thanks for your attention and listening. ...Read more