The president of Caritas Internationalis has thanked the Caritas network, the global confederation of 165 national Catholic relief and development agencies, for its work ensuring the poor and vulnerable are not forgotten during the virus crisis.
Speaking from Rome, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of Caritas and the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, said: “A pandemic spread of a virus must produce a pandemic ‘contagion’ of charity.”
He added: “We should wash our hands, but not the way Pilate did; we cannot wash our hands of our responsibility towards the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the refugees, the homeless, the health providers, indeed all people, creation and future generations”.
Cardinal Tagle “Can our governments admit that many of them got it wrong when they didn’t allow everyone to belong to the human family in a dignified way?” he asked. Delivering his Easter message last week, he continued: “Caritas staff and volunteers and their families are in my prayers as our communities face this enormous challenge”.
The Cardinal complimented parishes in his native Manila supporting poor communities, many coordinated through Community Caritas Kindness Stations.
Locally-based, they distribute food and hygiene kits, whilst observing quarantine regulations.
In India, Caritas has supplied more than 72,000 bottles of disinfectant, over four million masks and 64,000 kits for personal hygiene. I
In Italy, Caritas has provided soup kitchens, dormitories for the homeless and assistance to the elderly, including through a dedicated telephone line. In many other countries – including Armenia, Uganda and Ukraine – telephone psychological assistance and support services have been activated.
In Venezuela, where there is already a disastrous economic situation, volunteers provide food aid and hygiene kits at home. The Confederation has urged that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who are at greater risk of contagion due to the conditions in which they live, be guaranteed access to basic services.
Cardinal Tagle has also urged rich countries to write off the debt of poor countries struggling with the pandemic. “Could the coronavirus-19 crisis lead to a jubilee?” he has asked several times in recent weeks. This, he suggested, would help poor countries to “use their dwindling resources to support their communities rather pay the interest imposed on them”. He lamented that many countries “spend much money on arms, weapons and national security”, and called for money to be released, “for real security, education housing and food”.
In his Palm Sunday homily today, live-streamed from Rome’s Pontifical Filipino College, where he is in lockdown, he said his own family has been touched by the pandemic. A cousin in the US with cancer died the previous day after contracting the virus.
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