The 70th anniversary of Caritas Internationalis will be reached on December 12, 2021.
It will be a moment of evaluation, memories, but above all of witness, according to a statement released by the organization. The Confederation brings together and coordinates the different national Caritas organizations around the world.
Seven decades have passed since the Constitutive Assembly of Caritas Internationalis met in Rome on December 12, 1951. At that time there were only 13 Caritas member organizations in the Confederation, while today there are 162. Caritas Internationalis was established by Pope Pius XII in order to unite national charitable organizations, to promote mutual understanding, coordination, and collaboration in carrying out charitable and social activities in different parts of the world. The Confederation developed rapidly, so much so that already in 1967, Paul VI stated in his encyclical Popolorum progressio that ‘Caritas Internationalis is at work all over the world’.
Today, the Confederation operates in 200 countries and territories and continues to serve, defend and accompany the poor by responding to humanitarian emergencies, defending human dignity, and creating the necessary conditions for integral human development. Thanks to its widespread presence, Caritas is a privileged interlocutor with local communities, which is also the reason why Pope Francis wanted Caritas Internationalis to coordinate, together with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the working group on listening to the local Churches of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission.
Local realities will also be at the center of the various initiatives organized by Caritas Internationalis to celebrate its anniversary.
Beginning on October 28 in each of the seven weeks leading up to December 12, seven online conferences will be held, each dedicated to one of the seven regions of the confederation: Africa, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, and Oceania.
The first conference, entitled Seven decades of fighting against poverty and for human dignity, will be held on 28 October at 3.30 p.m. (Rome time) and will focus on the North America Region. (To participate online click here).
The seven virtual appointments will be an opportunity to trace back, through the voices of experts and representatives of local Caritas, some key moments in the history of the Confederation in the region, presenting at the same time current challenges, crises, and difficulties. Each conference will be accompanied by a project to be supported as a symbolic gesture of solidarity.
The various initiatives and celebrations will conclude in Rome with a conference to be held at the Pontifical Urbanian University on December 13 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. During this event, the new Caritas Internationalis Global Campaign dedicated to the promotion of integral ecology and ecological conversion will also be launched.
As part of its anniversary initiatives, Caritas Internationalis has also begun to disseminate information and images by posting on its Twitter account @iamcaritas and other social profiles one tweet a day dedicated to a year in its history.
