Cardinal calls for greater role for religious organizations in humanitarian aid

May 26, 2016

At the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, the president of the Church’s federation of relief and development agencies called for a greater role for religious organizations in aid distribution.

“In fact, they are already there before the conflict and during the conflict and when the international organizations have left the area, the volunteers from faith-based groups remain,” said Cardinal Luis Antonlio Tagle, president of Caritas Internationalis.

“Because of their connection to the communities, knowing the culture, the mentalities, the dreams, what works and what does doesn’t work, they really should be given a bigger responsibility,” he continued.

Sean Callahan of Catholic Relief Services told the summit participants that “our collective unwillingness to prevent or prepare adequately for disasters is a systemic moral failure.”

“Too many innocent people suffer from the consequences of disasters caused by or aggravated by human action and inaction,” he said. “It is the time to reform the global humanitarian system.”

 

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Further information:

• Card Tagle: Put human beings at centre of humanitarian aid (Vatican Radio)
• Catholic leaders condemn ‘moral failure’ of world’s humanitarian system (CNS)
• Faith-based groups need greater role in aid distribution, Cardinal Tagle tells humanitarian summit (CNS)
• World Humanitarian Summit
• Peacekeeping tops humanitarian agenda, Vatican Secretary of State tells UN forum (CWN, 5/24)