Caritas India hosted the bi-annual National Assembly of the Diocesan Directors of the Social Apostolate on October 12-14, 2023, in Pala, Kerala to allow vital deliberation for strengthening our partnerships and building new collaborations. After a long hiatus of 4 years, Caritas India was blessed with an opportunity to meet again, reminisce about the years gone by, and introspect over the new set of perspectives for the church fraternity in India. The National Assembly also served as a platform for mutual learning, and sharing, between newly appointed directors and all-natural diocesan partners, thus strengthening the network of partnership.

Caritas India’s commitment to integrated human development and our strife to be relevant to the needs and aspirations of the poor and the marginalized have greatly amplified our evolution in the social sector. At the National Assembly 2023, Caritas India affirmed its intent to build a “Synodal Caritas for Fraternal Cooperation” that travels together, fostering a Culture of Care and Social Dialogue by promoting fraternity and social friendship to establish a new order of peace and justice.

Chairman of Caritas India, Archbishop Sebastian Kallupura, emphasized on widening the “Culture of Care” by encompassing migrants, war victims, vulnerable people from conflicts, trafficking, natural disasters, and rest. He also encouraged the partners for their commitment in Caritas’s “Project of Life.”

The summit acknowledged that the global context is focusing and revolving around localization, where the empowerment of local actors is a key factor. In this regard, Fr (Dr.) Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India outlined the approaches for being “Vocal to Local.” “We need to create localization models to give voices to the locals to create their destines”, he said.

In his special virtual address, Alistair Dutton, Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis spoke about the importance of local knowledge and its global impact. He lauded Caritas India’s relationship with the local community and its strength to build rich partnerships. He encouraged the participants to continue to be embedded in local communities. Through various examples, he reiterated the message of human resilience and strength to strive for the future.

In his address, Most Rev. Joseph Kallarangatt, Bishop of Syro Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Pala appreciated Caritas India’s effort to reach out to the vulnerable irrespective of difference in caste, creed, or religion. Emphasizing the importance of charity he recommended widening the space of charity and encompassing more people. He reiterated the message of Pope Francies- Fraternity, Justice, Peace and- expressions of the kingdom of God.

Emphasizing the value of Fraternity, Fr. Paul argued for fraternal cooperation that is rooted in the identity of Caritas and will lead us to have a common understanding of the mission, service, and communion. This will help us to journey together as a family with a shared vision towards integrated human development and amplify our involvement in the social sector.

In pursuit of building a Synodal Caritas for fraternal cooperation, this National Assembly aimed to bring together partners and redefine the partnership principles for fraternal cooperation by bringing forth a shared vision of integrated human development. The assembly also reflected on localization and promoting local leadership introspect on the relevance of Key Strategic Pillars in the network, and introducing the strategic orientation for the next 5 years.

Deliberations were also held on key strategies and approaches to create an effective ecosystem for the Social Apostolate. Mr Senthil Kumar, Executive Director of Catholic Relief Services (India) along with Fr. Paul posited common good strategies and new ideas that can aid and abet in serving the organisation and its beneficiaries. He encouraged the necessity of reflecting, understanding, and working together on a regional basis. Important inputs were brought forward in discussions on safeguarding policies and strictures and their entailing effects on the organisation’s functioning.

Answering to queries regarding new policies, Fr. Jolly, Assistant Executive Director, Caritas India, spoke in length about the importance of Institutional Policies to strictly adhering to the law of the land.

There were five major sessions that were covered during the National Assembly- Caritas at the heart of the mission, Embedding Strategies, Embedding Policies, Emerging challenges and New Pathways, and Parish Caritas. These sessions were conducted through panel discussions, experience sharing and testimonies, working group sessions, and spiritual reflections.

Discussing on ways to strengthening Parish communities the panel laid out various strategies and ideas. Mr Peter Seidel, from Caritas Germany emphasized how the importance of making the right analysis with available sources. “We solve our problem together! Let’s all sit together to solve the problem. Get the people organized- they are like sheep without shepherd!” he said. He also spoke on promoting solidarity and volunteerism.

After the 2½ days of in-depth interactive deliberation, following were the outcomes received from the Diocesan Directors of the Social Apostolate-

1. Unified perspective as a church fraternity,
2. A common understanding and a shared vision of fraternal cooperation in the current reality, to be lived in a spirit of solidarity,
3. New synergy for courageous innovation,
4. Commitment to integrated human development,
5. Awareness about the Church’s Social Development Strategy,
6. Mutually agreeable comprehensive national action plan to drive Church’s response to fulfil mission and vision of Caritas India.

With the theme of Fraternity in humanity-walking together, the National Assembly 2023 reflected on the social development perspectives emanating from the current socio-political-economic and cultural context and took decisions to navigate further with the spirit of synodality.

In recognition of the exceptional efforts and achievements in the realm of social apostolates, Caritas India bestowed the prestigious Organization Excellence and Impact Making Leader awards. The top honor, the Organization Excellence Award’s first prize, was bestowed upon Purvanchal Gramin Seva Samiti (PGSS) of Gorakhpur. The second prize in this category was well-deservedly awarded to Chetanalaya of Delhi. In the Impact Making Leader category, the first prize was conferred upon Fr. Alex Prashanth Sequeira, the Director of The Organisation for the Development of People in Mysore. The second prize in this category was duly presented to Fr. Jayan Alex, who serves as the Director of Khandwa Diocesan Social Services. These awards stand as a testament to their outstanding contributions in fostering positive change and making a significant impact within their respective communities.

At last, the following Mission statement was pledged- strongly to integrate the culture of Care in all our actions, embed our programs with the ethos of Charity and the spirit of communion and fraternal cooperation, encourage women into the decision-making process, and to the heart of the management leadership, strengthen our organizational systems and policies, in accordance with the government and donor requirements, promote and integrate volunteerism into all our programs and organizational approaches for enabling a more participatory engagement and ownership building, Foster a multidisciplinary dialogue at macro, meso, and micro levels among stakeholders to formulate effective strategies and to build sectoral and thematic expertise, come up with community-led scalable models for maximize the impacts in the areas of disaster risk reduction, nutrition and health care with a special focus on disability, peacebuilding, resilient livelihood, children and development and safeguarding.

Through these mission statements, Fr. Paul, encouraged to create hope and space to converge as one family for working together and walking together. Imparting the message of hope in the end Chairman Archbishop Sebastian appealed to the partners to instill a feeling of inspiration in people and foster an inclusive working spirit by holding everybody together.