Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 397

of Caritas Internationalis, for his kind words on your behalf, and I offer a

cordial greeting to all of you and to the entire Caritas family. I also assure

you of my gratitude and my prayerful good wishes for the works of Christian

charity which you accomplish in countries throughout the world.

The primary reason for our meeting today is to thank God for the many

graces poured out on the Church in the sixty years which have passed since

the foundation of Caritas Internationalis. Following the horrors and devasta-

tion of the Second World War, Venerable Pius XII wanted to demonstrate

the solidarity and concern of the entire Church in the face of so many situa-

tions of conflict and emergency in the world. He did this by creating an

agency which, at the level of the universal Church, would promote greater

communication, coordination and cooperation among the Church's numerous

charitable agencies in the various countries.1 Blessed John Paul II further

strengthened the bonds linking the individual national Caritas agencies to

one another and to the Holy See by granting public canonical juridical per-

sonality to Caritas Internationalis.2 As a result, the international agency took

on a particular role in the heart of the ecclesial community and was called to

share, in collaboration with the ecclesiastical hierarchy, in the Church's mis-

sion of making manifest, through practical charity, that love which is God

himself. Within the limits of the proper ends assigned to it, Caritas Interna-

tionalis thus carries out in the name of the Church a specific task for the

common good.3

Being in the heart of the Church, being able in a certain way to speak and

act in her name for the common good, entails particular responsibilities in

terms of the Christian life, both personal and in community. Only on the

basis of a daily commitment to accept and to live fully the love of God can

one promote the dignity of each and every human being. In my first Ency-

clical, Deus Caritas Est, I reaffirmed how critical the witness of charity is for

the Church in our day. Through such witness, seen in the daily lives of her

members, the Church reaches out to millions of persons and makes it possible

for them to recognize and sense the love of God, who is always close to every

man and woman in need. For us Christians, God himself is the source of

charity; and charity is understood not merely as generic benevolence but

as self-giving, even to the sacrifice of one's life for others in imitation of

1 Cfr. John Paul II, Chirograph Durante l'Ultima Cena, 16 September 2004, No. 1. 2 Ibid., 3. 3 Cfr. Code of Canon Law, can. 116 § 1.