Is the Catholic Church Really the Largest Charitable Organization on Earth?

[envano]

Brothers and sisters. It is time to take action and do a research about it. If we all look for something new, we will be able to tie the knots surrounding this question. I have been reminded over and over again, about the mistakes done in our Church, by our separated brethren. We do need hard evidence on this one, since it is our duty to protect The Lord’s dwelling place.

It is also necessary to not be passive about it, but to take action. Martyr’s die every day in Irak, India, China by proclaiming the gospel. There are countless orders of missionaries around the world. Besides we have the orders that by a contemplative life, pray every day for every single one of us. Not to mention the fact that in our cities there are charity missions that feed and give shelter to the homeless.

For example: I live in Miami. Here in Miami we have ministries that feed the homeless every weekend. To be specific “Our Lady of Lourdes” Catholic Church does it, with the collaboration of “The Good Shepard” Catholic Church. “The Shrine of Our Lady of Charity” does it as well every weekend.

There is also “Camillus House” which shelters and feeds the homeless, and we have a house of “Missionaries of Charity” doing the same. We also have “The sisters of Charity” of St. Vincent de Paul, who send food to Haiti, Nicaragua, and some other countries every weekend.

The other day, I received a newspaper of "The Homeless Voice," which had an article of John Paul II, so I guess that even if they are non denominational, they have something to do with the Catholic Church. 

What I can tell you with certainty is that here in Miami, The Catholic Church is the most Charitable Church in South Florida. There are no institutions here like the ones I mention in other churches. That doesn't mean of course, that our separated brothers don't do anything. On the contrary they help a los as well. But they don't have such a thing as "Camillus House"  or all the places mentioned above. 

I invite you all to look in your city and confirm it in this website. At least for starters. Until one day a good sociologist makes a professional research that will back up what we have been said: That the Catholic Church is number 1 in doing the acs of mercy and love.

Yours in Christ 

 Envano.

 

[MarcoPolo]

No one even comes close…

catholicscomehome.org/epic/Epic_%20proof.pdf

I just wanted to update the above link which has since gone broken since 2009.

Here is the PDF called “Epic Proof” including references to the Church’s charitable work and many other informational links.

.

 

[LovePatience]

I’m attaching my question to this rather “old” post about the charitable activities of the Catholic Church, because it seems the most relevant.

Does the Catholic Church now, or has it in the past, supported charitable programs to help impoverished Jewish communities in the U.S. or throughout the world (former Soviet Union, Poland, Ethiopia)?

The Catholic Church rescued more Jews in the Holocaust than all other organizations combined.

Introduction

There are many Catholic heroes of the Holocaust. Poland, a country which suffered grievously under the Nazis in the Second World War, for instance, alone produced more than 4,000 people who have been recognised as Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance authority in Jerusalem.

Some of these inspirational figures have become world-famous because of their heroism. We only have to think of St Maximilian Kolbe, for instance, or Edith Stein or even Oskar Schindler.

Just over a year ago Pope Benedict XVI declared his predecessor, Pope Pius XII, to be Venerable, meaning the Church believes he lived a life of heroic virtue. Much of this was played out in the war years when the Catholic Church saved nearly a million Jewish people from the Holocaust, more than all the other international relief organisations put together.

catholicherald.co.uk/features/2011/01/19/ten-catholic-heroes-of-the-holocaust/

One one hand, the Jewish community believes this is true.

In 1958, at the death of Pope Pius XII, Golda Meir, then Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered a eulogy on behalf of the nation of Israel to the United Nations, stating: “We share the grief of the world over the death of His Holiness Pius XII. During a generation of wars and dissensions, he affirmed the high ideals of peace and compassion. During the 10 years of Nazi terror, when our people went through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims. The life of our time has been enriched by a voice which expressed the great moral truths above the tumults of daily conflicts. We grieve over the loss of a great defender of peace.”

michaeljournal.org/piusXII.htm

That was Israel’s first woman and the world’s third woman prime minister. Not only that the Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism and named himself Eugenio, to honor Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli).

On the other hand, the Jewish community thinks Catholics could have done more.

The Pope’s reaction to the Holocaust was complex and inconsistent. At times, he tried to help the Jews and was successful. But these successes only highlight the amount of influence he might have had, if he not chosen to remain silent on so many other occasions. No one knows for sure the motives behind Pius XII’s actions, or lack thereof, since the Vatican archives have only been fully opened to select researchers. Historians offer many reasons why Pope Pius XII was not a stronger public advocate for the Jews: A fear of Nazi reprisals, a feeling that public speech would have no effect and might harm the Jews, the idea that private intervention could accomplish more, the anxiety that acting against the German government could provoke a schism among German Catholics, the church’s traditional role of being politically neutral and the fear of the growth of communism were the Nazis to be defeated.(34) Whatever his motivation, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Pope, like so many others in positions of power and influence, could have done more to save the Jews.

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/pius.html

 

[Matilda_Bennett]

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