The Flaming Cross: an emblem for Caritas

 

Mr Walter Baumeister, Secretary of Caritas Karlsruhe, first proposed the need for a common emblem for Caritas Germany in 1920.

 

The aim of the cross was to express the unity of the Catholic movement and to honour the work of Caritas.

 

The design was by Paul Hubner of Freiburg. It was a golden cross with four small flames on a white background with the strap line: “Caritas – do good to all.”

 

They were unable to register "Caritas" on its own because that had already been taken by a paper manufacturer.

 

In 1933, Alfred Riedel designed a new simplified version of the cross in flames. They forgot to renew the copyright to this version and the earlier ones so copyright expired in 1941, although they carried on using the unprotected Riedel version until 1962.

 

In 1962, a new version was designed by Bert Jaeger. It kept the flames making them more like waves.

 

This is the version Caritas Internationalis uses and encourages all its members to use.

Many of them do, but many don’t because they work in countries where the use of religious symbolism such as a cross for an aid agency would be too sensitive or their own identity has developed differently over time.