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| Cardinal Luis Tagle |
This evening Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila (Philippines) was elected as the new president of Caritas Internationalis.
He addressed (speaking on the phone) the more than 400 delegates from 130 member organisations saying:
“Thank you for your trust. I’m limited in my capacities but with all of you, with the love that Jesus has poured into our hearts and in the name of all of the poor people in the world, I accept this election.
“Let us together strengthen the church of the poor so our witness can help guide us to a world of understanding justice, true freedom and peace.”
In the morning Cardinal Maradiaga, presented his final report as he was stepping down as Caritas Internationalis president after serving two terms.
Just a few paragraphs from his speech:
- "The answer to them is the same as the one the disciples received on the road to Emmaus. It is our encounter with Christ, and with the stranger in whose face we see Christ, which explains our Caritas journey.
- As Caritas we have ample opportunity to be the evangelising community that sees the face of Christ and bathes His wounds. He is the refugee fleeing Syria, the mother who has lost her baby to Ebola, the child who is held in detention after illegally crossing into the United States, the family rebuilding its house following a typhoon, the mother and father who have been uprooted by climate change, the millions of unemployed and homeless people scattered across the world. He is your brother.Caritas is the family whose door is always open and whose heart is always ready to love. Caritas is where the Gospel comes alive and the Christian community is renewed.
- I leave you with these words from a prayer by Oscar Romero:
'We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.'
- Also, I leave you with the words one Cardinal said to Cardinal Bergoglio during the papal conclave when he was elected – “Don’t forget the poor.”
