Caritas will elect key leadership roles during the General Assembly. Photo by Elodie Perriot/Caritas
A major meeting of worldwide Caritas Internationalis organisations gets underway 12 May with a special Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The Caritas Internationalis General Assembly (12-17 May) is on the theme of ‘One Human Family, Caring for Creation’. Over 300 delegates will set plans for the next 4 years aimed at improving the lives of those living in poverty and misery.
“Pope Francis has asked us to go to the ‘peripheries’ to help those in need,” said Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga. “During the Caritas Internationalis General Assembly, the peripheries will come to Rome to seek better ways to improve our service to the most vulnerable”.
Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga will officially open the event on 13 May at Domus Mariae Church Palace Hotel.
Guest speakers will include Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; theologian Fr Gustavo Gutierrez O.P; economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Dr Jacques Diouf, Special Envoy for the Sahel and the Horn of Africa; and Beverly Haddad from the University of Kwazulu-Natal.
“Inequality, migration, climate change, conflict, and the scandal of hunger are challenges facing Caritas and its mission to promote development and justice,” said Michel Roy, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. “There are major opportunities coming up to work towards this goal, such as a new papal encyclical on human ecology, the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals and the COP 21 climate meeting in Paris”.
Key leadership roles will also be up for election. Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga will step down as president after eight years. Candidates for president are Archbishop Youssef Soueif, president of Caritas Cyprus and Cardinal Luis Tagle, Archbishop of Manila. Elections for the leadership will take place on 14 May.
Among the delegates will be 50 extra guests representing young people, volunteers, grassroots communities and campaigners against hunger.
After the General Assembly, Caritas delegates will go to the EXPO 2015 in Milan for an official EXPO Caritas Day on 19 May. The event is part of Caritas’ campaign ‘One Human Family, Food for All’ which aims to end hunger by 2025.
For more information, please contact Michelle Hough on +39 06 69879721 / +39 334 2344136 or [email protected].