February
22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- The Vatican has refused to allow Caritas
Knight to submit her name for reelection
to her position, citing the need to
strengthen the organization’s
“Catholic identity,” among
other concerns.
Knight
was refused the “nihil obstat”
(“nothing obstructs”) declaration
required for candidates to be eligible
for the office, despite protests from
organization leaders, including Caritas
President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga.
“The
Holy See wants a change in the way it
works with Caritas and says this requires
a change in the person of the secretary-general,”
Caritas said in an official statement
on the firing.
Caritas
Internationalis is an umbrella organization
that unites numerous Catholic aid organizations
worldwide, including the Canadian Catholic
Organization for
Development and Peace (CCODP),
supported by the bishops of Canada.
Cardinal
Robert Sarah, head of the Pontifical
Council Cor Unum, told Zenit that “after
four years, the mandate of the present
Secretary General, Lesley Anne Knight,
will end. In this time, Knight has done
much to make the confederation more
agile and professional.”
“Now
Caritas Internationalis is dealing with
new internal challenges, including the
revision of its statutes. These
challenges also involve internal
collaboration, the
Catholic identity of the Confederation,
cooperation with the Holy See,
greater participation of the various
continents, a proper understanding of
the autonomy of each Caritas member
of the confederation,” he added.
Knight’s
firing appears to be connected to the
general reform project of international
aid programs outlined in Pope Benedict’s
recent encyclical letter Caritas in
Veritate (Charity in Truth), which insists
that human development and foreign aid
cannot be separated from the demands
of truth.
“Only
in charity, illumined by the light of
reason and faith, is it possible to
pursue development goals that possess
a more humane and humanizing value,”
Benedict writes, and observes that international
aid organizations are sometimes involved
with abortion, contraception, sterilization,
and euthanasia.
“Some
non-governmental Organizations work
actively to spread abortion, at times
promoting the practice of sterilization
in poor countries, in some cases not
even informing the women concerned,”
he writes. “Moreover, there is
reason to suspect that development aid
is sometimes linked to specific health-care
policies which de facto involve the
imposition of strong birth control measures.
Further grounds for concern are laws
permitting euthanasia as well as pressure
from lobby groups, nationally and internationally,
in favor of its juridical recognition.”
The
CCODP, a Caritas member organization,
has come under fire from pro-life groups
for supporting organizations that advocate
the legalization of abortion, distribute
contraceptives, and support homosexualist
policies. Knight vigorously defended
CCODP after such policies were exposed
by LifeSiteNews in early 2009 in a letter
sent to donors and obtained by LSN.
In
addition, anonymous Vatican officials
told LifeSiteNews last November in Rome
that similar problems exist with Catholic
international aid organizations sponsored
by other national bishops’ conferences
and that this was a disturbing and unacceptable
trend. LifeSiteNews was told that these
bishops’ conferences were not
conducting proper oversight over their
international development and aid organizations
resulting in the funding of groups
whose objectives are in serious conflict
with Catholic teaching.