From today until next Sunday, June 11, the Corpus Christi festival, the Cáritas from all over Spain celebrate Charity Week as every year. Throughout these days, each Cáritas has an appointment with transparency and accountability regarding the work carried out throughout the year in their respective dioceses and parishes, which is accompanied by collections and actions to attract resources, and the liturgical celebrations.
Under the motto “You have a lot to do. We are opportunity. we are hope”, the Caritas Confederation convenes Charity Day this year with a message that seeks to be an invitation “to open your eyes”, to let yourself be “looked at and touched by the tenderness of God” to achieve “the miracle of spreading life and opportunity”. . With this call, Cáritas proposes to take part in social life to open our minds, refocus our gaze and see together that other reality of the world of which we are a part: that of so many people who cannot access the same rights, of those who are socially disadvantaged and who live in sadness, loneliness and poverty.
Hence the objective of this year’s campaign to shed light on the true dimension of that reality of the discarded in which the thousands of volunteers and workers of Cáritas are present every day. There are many people and families who are running out of dreams and without expectations, who transit through streets and neighborhoods anonymously, although each one of them has a name and history, soul and desires.
These are some of the figures of this reality of discarding and exclusion on which Cáritas focuses on on the occasion of Charity Day:
1 in 4 people in Spain is in a situation of exclusion: some 11 million people. 17% of the population spends excessively on housing. 1 in 3 people suffer the effects of the digital divide. 1 in 3 people in Spain do not have enough income to live with dignity. Of these, 46% cut in food, 63% in supplies and 56% in Internet and telephone. 7% of the Spanish population has no income.
communicate hope
In the midst of a complex and painful reality, Caritas is committed to “communicating hope from Christian love that gives meaning to our mission, so that all people see that it is the force of love that changes and transforms everything.” As pointed out in this year’s campaign guide, “to celebrate the Day of Charity is to participate in the banquet of the Kingdom, to commune with the values of Jesus and his lifestyle, to make bread and wine with Him to give life in abundance , give it out of love, and become neighbors, close brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer the most.
In the words of Eva San Martincoordinator of the Caritas Charity campaign, “we want to encourage and awaken the solidarity and compassion that lives in each person so that we get involved, and commit ourselves to a lifestyle that transforms our model of coexistence, and makes it fairer , supportive and fraternal”.
Bishops’ message
In their usual message on the occasion of Charity Day, the bishops of the Episcopal Subcommittee for Charitable and Social Action underlined the objectives of the Caritas campaign with an invitation “to all Christians, and in a special way to all of you who work in charitable action charitable and social, to open your eyes to the suffering of our poorest brothers, to listen to their cries and to let your heart be touched to be an opportunity and hope for all of them”.
The members of the Subcommittee do not hide their concern for “the situation of the people and families affected by the crisis.” “We live – they affirm – times of accumulated crises. After the pandemic caused by Covid-19, came the war in Ukraine, the increase in human mobility, the evolution of energy costs and inflation… This situation, both locally and globally, has increased poverty and inequality and it has fed despair.”
They also warn about the risks posed by “the growing social dissociation in our environment” and “a strongly ideologized society, which leads to polarizations and tensions in the fields of economy, politics, culture, even religion ”.
Faced with this reality, the Bishops emphasize that “the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Encounter, enables us for new types of social relationships and opens us to inclusive dialogue”, and gives us the keys to “be opportunity and be hope”.
“Doing charity – says the message – means having the courage to look each other in the eye. From this point of view, we are convinced that you have a lot to do with the opportunities that other people may have. What you do, how you position yourself in the world and before others, can open doors, give life, alleviate loneliness, heal the soul, make others feel that new life is sprouting in them”. In short, “our task is not only to meet the needs of others, but to discover their possibilities to open paths of hope.”
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