Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale676

mediate future by electing the major officers of Caritas Internationalis. I am

confident that your deliberations during these days have been of great ben-

efit for you personally, for the work of your member organizations world-

wide, and for all those you serve.

First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank you for the outstanding

witness that your Confederation has given to the world, ever since the found-

ing of the first national Caritas in Germany over a century ago. Since that

time, there has been a great proliferation of organizations bearing the name

- on parish, diocesan and national levels - and these have been gathered,

through the initiative of the Holy See, into the Confederation Caritas Inter-

nationalis, which today numbers more than 150 national organizations. It

was because of the public character of your charitable activity, rooted in the

love of God, that my predecessor the Servant of God John Paul II conferred

public and canonical legal personality upon Caritas Internationalis through

the Pontifical Letter During the Last Supper of 16 September 2004. This

status seals your organization's ecclesial membership, giving it a specific

mission within the Church. It means that your Confederation does not simply

work on behalf of the Church, but is truly a part of the Church, intimately

engaged in the exchange of gifts that takes place on so many levels of eccle-

sial life. As a sign of the Holy See's support for your work, Caritas Interna-

tionalis has been granted its wish to be accompanied and guided by the

Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

So what is the particular mission of your Confederation? What aspect of

the Church's task falls to you and to your member organizations? You are

called, by means of the charitable activity that you undertake, to assist in

the Church's mission to spread throughout the world the love of God that has

been "poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit".1 The very concept of

caritas draws us into the heart of Christianity, into the heart of Christ, from

which "rivers of living water" flow.2 In the work of charitable organizations

like yours, we see the fruits of Christ's love. I developed this theme in my

Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, which I commend to you once more as a reflec-

tion on the theological significance of your action in the world. Charity has to

be understood in the light of God who is caritas: God who loved the world so

much that he gave his only Son.3 In this way we come to see that love finds

its greatest fulfilment in the gift of self. This is what Caritas Internationalis

1 Rom 5:5. 2 Cf. Jn 7:38. 3 Cf. Jn 3:16.