Three top Catholic charities meet to set agenda

Brussels meeting - see caption below.

The heads of three top Catholic charities held their first yearly meeting to speak about common views on urgent global issues.

Caritas Internationalis, Caritas Europa and Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité (International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity, or CIDSE) also met to strengthen ties in what they hoped was the first of a series of future yearly meetings.

Caritas Internationalis vice president and Caritas Europa president Father Erny Gillen, Caritas Internationalis secretary general Michel Roy, CIDSE president (and CAFOD director) Chris Bain, CIDSE secretary general Bernd Nilles and Caritas Europa secretary general Jorge Nuño Mayer met last Thursday, February 29, in Caritas Europa headquarters in Brussels.

“We are very worried because the United Nation’s millennium development goals to reduce poverty by 2015 have not been achieved,” said Jorge Nuño Mayer.

“As Catholic organisations, we need to work together to do something so that there is less poverty beyond 2015,” he said.

“We are also hold a common stance on food and climate change. We have to see what the common agenda is and what global moments we can use to present a common visibility of Catholic positions.”

The three charities will meet each year to exchange information with each other.

WHO DOES WHAT?

Caritas focuses on more types of poverty, while CIDSE does more advocacy work and Lent campaigns.

But all three have common concerns, including food security, environment and poverty.

Most European countries belong to one of these Catholic charities.

But Ireland’s Trocaire, Scotland’s SCIAF, Holland’s Cordaid and England and Wales’ CAFOD are the only organisations that belong to both Caritas and CIDSE.

Pictured left to right: CIDSE president Chris Bain, Caritas Internationalis vice president & Caritas Europa president Fr Erny Gillen, CIDSE secretary general Bernd Nilles, Caritas Internationalis secretary general Michel Roy, Caritas Europa secretary general Jorge Nuño Ma