Bulletins, Newsletters, and Flocknotes

DECREE

Caritas Internationalis assists the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops in the exercise of their ministry to the poorest and most in need, participating in the management of humanitarian emergencies and collaborating in the promotion of charity and justice in the world in the light of the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church. In order to improve the fulfilment of this mission, it would appear necessary to revise the current regulatory framework to make it more appropriate to the statutory functions of the organization, and to prepare it for the elections to be held at the next General Assembly. With the fervent wish to facilitate the envisaged renewal of the Institution

I hereby appoint

Dr Pier Francesco Pinelli as Temporary Administrator of Caritas Internationalis , so that, as from 22 November 2022, he may temporarily direct it ad nutum by the Apostolic See, with all the powers of governance, in accordance with common law and the Statutes and Rules of the Institution, and with full authority to derogate from them, should he deem it opportune or necessary.

With the entry into force of this measure, the Members of the Representative Council and the Executive Council, the President and Vice Presidents, the Secretary General, the Treasurer and the Ecclesiastical Assistant shall cease from their respective offices.

The Temporary Administrator, aided in his duties by Dr. Maria Amparo Alonso Escobar and supported by Rev. Fr. Manuel Morujão, S.J., for the personal and spiritual accompaniment of the employees, will provide for the updating of the Statutes and Rules of Caritas Internationalis , for their greater functionality and effectiveness, guiding the Organization in the preparation of the next General Assembly. In this latter task the Temporary Administrator will be assisted by Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, who will be responsible in particular for relations with the local Churches and Member Organizations of Caritas Internationalis .

The Temporary Administrator will act in concert with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

From the Vatican, 21 November 2022

FRANCIS

This morning, the Holy Father Francis received in audience:

- Her Excellency Ms. Sigita Maslauskaitė-Mažylienė, ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Holy See, presenting her credential letters;

- Participants in the World Jewish Congress;

- Ms. Olga Muñoz.

This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the participants in the Executive Committee Meeting of the World Jewish Congress.

The following is the Pope’s address to those present during the meeting:

 

Address of the Holy Father

Dear Representatives of the World Jewish Congress, I offer you my fraternal welcome. I thank you, Ambassador Lauder, for your kind words. This visit testifies to and strengthens the bonds of friendship uniting us. From the time of the Second Vatican Council, your Congress has been in dialogue with the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and for many years has sponsored meetings of great interest.

We, Jews and Catholics, share priceless spiritual treasures. We profess faith in the Maker of heaven and earth, who not only created humanity, but forms every human being in his own image and likeness (cf.  Gen  1:26). We believe that the Almighty has not remained distant from his creation, but has revealed himself, not communicating only with an isolated few, but addressing us as a people. Through faith and the reading of the Scriptures handed down in our religious traditions, we can enter into a relationship with him and cooperate with his providential will.

We likewise share a similar outlook on the final things, shaped by trust that on the journey of life we are not advancing towards nothingness, but towards an encounter with the Most High who cares for us. An encounter with the One who has promised us, at the end of time, an eternal kingdom of peace, where everything that is a threat to human life and coexistence will come to an end. Our world is marked by violence, oppression and exploitation, yet these do not have the final word. The faithful promise of the Eternal One speaks to us of a future of salvation, of new heavens and a new earth (cf.  Is  65:17-18;  Rev  21:1), where peace and joy will have dwell secure, where death will be eliminated forever, where he will wipe away the tears from all faces (cf.  Is  25:7-8) and there will be no more mourning, crying out or pain (cf.  Rev  21:14). The Lord will bring about this future; indeed he himself will be our future. While there may be different conceptions in Judaism and Christianity about how this fulfilment will come about, the consoling promise that we share remains. It encourages our hope, but no less so our commitment to ensure that the world in which we dwell and the history we make reflects the presence of the One who has called us to worship him and to be the guardians of our brothers and sisters.

Dear friends in light of the religious heritage that we share, let us regard the present as a challenge that unites us, as an incentive to act together. Our two communities of faith are entrusted with the task of working to make the world more fraternal, combatting forms of inequality and promoting greater justice, so that peace will not remain an otherworldly promise, but become a present reality in our world. The path to peaceful coexistence begins with justice, which, together with truth, love and freedom, is one of the fundamental conditions for lasting peace in the world (cf. POPE JOHN XXIII, Encyclical  Pacem in Terris , 18, 20, 25). How many human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, are violated in their dignity as the result of the injustice that racks our world and represents the underlying cause of so many conflicts, the swamp that breeds wars and violence! The One who created all things with order and harmony urges us to reclaim this  swamp of injustice that engulfs fraternal coexistence in the world, even as environmental devastations compromise the health of the earth.

Common and concrete initiatives aimed at promoting justice call for courage, cooperation and creativity. And they benefit greatly from faith, from the ability to place our confidence in the Most High and to let ourselves be guided by him, rather than by mere earthly interests, which are always immediate and shortsighted, marked by self-interest and incapable of embracing the whole. Faith instead makes us realize anew that every man and woman is made in the image and likeness of the Most High, and is called to journey towards his kingdom. The Scriptures, too, remind us that we can achieve little or nothing unless God gives us strength and inspiration: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” ( Ps  127:1). In other words, our political, cultural and social initiatives to better the world – what you call  Tikkun Olam  – will never prove successful without prayer and without fraternal openness to other creatures in the name of the one Creator, who loves life and blesses those who are peacemakers.

Brothers and sisters, today in many parts of the world, peace is threatened. Together we recognize that war, every war, is always and everywhere a defeat for all humanity! I think of the conflict in Ukraine, a great and sacrilegious war that is threatening Jews and Christians alike, depriving them of their loved ones, their homes, their property and their very lives! Only with a serious resolve to draw closer to one another and in fraternal dialogue is it possible to lay the groundwork for peace. As Jews and Christians, let us seek to do all that is humanly possible in order to put an end to war and to pave paths of peace.

Dear friends, I thank you most heartily for this visit. May the Most High, who has “plans for peace and not for harm” ( Jer  29:11), bless your good works. May he accompany you on your journey and lead us together in the way of peace.  Shalom! ”

Appointment of prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches

The Holy Father has appointed Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, titular of Ravello, until now apostolic nuncio in Great Britain, as prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.

The following is the message sent by the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, His Eminence Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., on the occasion of World Fisheries Day, held today, 21 November 2022:

 

Message of His Eminence Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J.

World Fisheries Day

21 November 2022

Message from the Prefect of the Dicastery for

Promoting Integral Human Development

Each year, 21 November marks the celebration of World Fisheries Day and represents an opportunity to acknowledge, on the one hand, the enormous and sometimes underappreciated food source that the sea provides for millions of humans and, on the other, the role, professions and frequent hardships of all those involved in fishing and aquaculture.

In 2016, the FAO Committee on Fishing (COFI) endorsed a proposal for the Declaration of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, with the intent to increase awareness of these sub-sectors among governments and society at large and the need to sustain their development through specific policies and laws which allow them to develop and adopt sustainable fishing practices. In 2017, the 72 nd  Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022), and it is in this context that we are celebrating World Fisheries Day today.

According to the FAO, in 2020 an estimated 58.5 million people were engaged (on a full-time, part-time, or occasional basis) in the primary sector of capture fisheries and aquaculture, providing the main source of income and livelihood for a substantial part of the population worldwide. Of all those engaged in primary production, the majority are in developing countries and most are small-scale, artisanal fishers and aquaculture workers. The highest numbers of workers are in Asia (85 percent), followed by Africa (9 percent), the Americas (4 percent), and Europe and Oceania (1 percent each).

As the most important single source of high-quality protein, fish is a vital source of food for millions of people. Small-scale artisanal fisheries, and aquaculture produce 40% of the worldwide fisheries catch, thus greatly contributing to food security, nutrition, and health.

Despite playing a crucial role for the well-being and the development of many communities around the world, however, the sector is plagued by several endemic problems that are threatening the development and meaningful life of fishing communities and, at times, the very existence of fisheries.

Several of these threats, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and ocean acidification, are global issues affecting every country and ocean. “The socio-ecological crisis that we are living is a propitious moment for individual and collective conversion and for concrete decisions that can no longer be postponed”. Therefore, international cooperation in the light of “fairness, justice and equity” (Cardinal Pietro Parolin,  Address to the 27 th  Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC , Sharm el-Sheikh, 8 November 2022) and of subsidiarity is essential for reducing the impact of these phenomena on our societies and to care for the oceans and their natural resources as a “common heritage of mankind”. Such international cooperation can even help in addressing localized and often traceable problems such as human rights infringements, poor and unsafe working conditions incompatible with human dignity, sea and river pollution (indeed, many fishing communities rely on a particular river or lake as a source of protein, but pollution threatens even freshwater), destruction of coastal areas (at times by new urban development), destructive and unsustainable fishing methods (for example bottom trawling, “factory” vessels, dynamite or cyanide), and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Furthermore, since early 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic has spread through the world causing exceptional health, social and economic damages that also harmed the fishing sector. Ports, fish markets and restaurants were closed, causing a significant reduction of the business of catching and selling fish products and consequently the loss of employment and income for many people, especially women who constitute a high proportion (albeit an often hidden one) of workers in this sector.

The economic impact of COVID-19 was strongly felt among small-scale fishers and in aquaculture workers since most of them operate without social protection plans or insurance, and are paid less than the legal minimum wage, often without a written contract, or are self-employed. Moreover, their business frequently requires sophisticated logistics (for food conservation and distribution), which was disrupted because of the lockdowns.

Governments throughout the world intervened to support those negatively affected by the pandemic, especially their most marginalized citizens. Regrettably, due to deficiencies within these exceptional governmental interventions, many people were left unaided and alone in coping with the crisis, though some were assisted by charitable organizations, including Catholic ones.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that everything is connected and that we are in the same boat. It is necessary to join our efforts to create a new social conscience and innovative form of solidarity in which no one is left behind. Pope Francis invites us to “bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. […] All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents [...]”. Clearly, “if everything is related, then the health of a society’s institutions has consequences for the environment and the quality of human life”. We certainly need better and more proactive institutions and policies to support, promote and protect all those involved in the fishing sector as well as their families. Undoubtedly, “a great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us” (Encyclical Letter  Laudato Si’ , Nos. 13, 14, 142 and 202) since major and complex improvements must be carefully implemented and coordinated.

On this World Fisheries Day, I would like to invite governments, international organizations, fisheries, faith-based organizations, and in a particular way Catholic institutions such as Stella Maris and Caritas, to join hands in effectively implementing the existing conventions and legislation and in cooperating to find innovative solutions for these inter-connected problems faced by the fishing world in an effort to protect “our common home”.

Card. Michael Czerny S.J. Prefect