Vatican City, Oct 31, 2008 / 10:23 am (CNA).- On Monday, November 3, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, will meet with the U.S. bishops to speak with them about the need to maintain the Catholic identity of the charitable outreach of the Church.

The president of the council, who in effect oversees all of the Church’s charitable activities, will travel to the United States to meet with the bishops during their November 10-13 meeting in Baltimore. 

The overriding concern of Cardinal Cordes’ address to the bishops will be to stress that Catholic charities cannot see themselves as philanthropies since their aim as Catholic institutions must be to offer the supreme act of charity, the announcing of the Gospel.

The cardinal, along with the directors of Catholic Charities, USA and Catholic Relief Services, will focus their discussions on Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “God Is Love.”

Cardinal Cordes’ visit with the bishops comes in the wake of a branch of Catholic Charities being involved in an abortion in Virginia and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development having to withdraw funding from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

During his seven day stay, Cardinal Cordes will also give conferences on charity throughout the Archdioceses of New York, Denver and Newark, New Jersey.  While in New Jersey, the prelate will receive a doctorate “honoris causa” from Seton Hall University, the oldest Catholic diocesan university in the United States. The cardinal is also looking forward to his time in Denver because of his fondness for the outdoors.  

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