The first, from a 2006 address to the World Conference on Charity, was a reminder by Pope Benedict that “in the charitable organization, God and Christ must not be strange words.” The true strength of Caritas, he said in that address, “depends on the strength of faith of all its members and collaborators.”
Cardinal Sarah said this “theocentric focus” was the reason for a series of spiritual exercises and days of reflection that the Pontifical Council Cor Unum had organized in recent years. “Caritas Europa is part of this,” he reminded its leaders, “and we count on your collaboration.”
The cardinal also invited directors of Caritas Europa to meditate on a concern he said was “surely at the heart of Benedict XVI's pontificate,” expressed during his May 2010 visit to Fatima, Portugal.
“In our time,” the Pope said on that occasion, “in which the faith in many places seems like a light in danger of being snuffed out forever, the highest priority is to make God visible in the world and to open to humanity a way to God.”
“And not to any 'god,' but to the God who had spoken on Sinai – the God whose face we recognize in the love borne to the very end in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.”
Cardinal Sarah explained that Caritas Europa should align its priorities with those of Pope Benedict, and see its activity as “the 'visiting card' that can open the door to Christ.”
“Charity is a divine gift,” he observed, “bestowed by the God who is love.”
The cardinal stated that the one who bears witness to this love “becomes an apostle.” Through the work of such apostles, “a seed of belief is sown even in the most skeptical.”