“All that you say and do, the witness of your lives and activities, remains important and contributes to the advancement of the integral good of the human person,” said Pope Benedict XVI to delegates at the 19th Caritas Internationalis General Assembly in Rome in May 2011.

The humanitarian and development work of the confederation of 164 Catholic charities “will enjoy the assistance and support of the Holy See,” he said at an audience with 300 Caritas representatives from national members attending the assembly.

Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga addressed Pope Benedict on behalf of the confederation. “Caritas dares to dream of a world of communion and charity,” he said. “Poverty is unacceptable as it affects the dignity and equality of the human person and thus the whole human family.”

Caritas delegates, including 50 bishops, officials from the Holy See, representatives of international organisations, diplomats and members of other faith groups met for six days to discuss how Caritas can best reduce poverty. Cardinal Rodríguez said it was “as an authentic expression of its common mission within the Church: to serve the poor.”

Reflecting on the One Human Family, Zero Poverty theme of the General Assembly, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretar y of State for the Holy See said that Caritas “is called to demonstrate, practically and effectively, that the world is one family, the family of the children of God.”

Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace and the preacher to the Pontifical Household Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap were also among the keynote speakers.