Vatican officials say Catholic aid not just response to material need

Published: 2006-01-25

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic charitable activity is not primarily a response to material needs, but a response to God's love, three Vatican officials said. The three officials presented Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), at a Jan. 25 Vatican press conference. Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican's charity-promotion agency, said work on a letter explaining the theological basis of Catholic charitable activity already had begun under Pope John Paul II, "and I cannot deny my joy that Pope Benedict has made it his own." Under Archbishop Cordes' leadership, Cor Unum has been working for years on strategies to strengthen the Catholic identity of Catholic-sponsored development and relief agencies. Although the archbishop spoke about the risk of secularization faced even by Catholic aid agencies, he and Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Archbishop William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also spoke about the need to work with governments and private institutions to meet human needs.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .