Question regarding the Church and Her Charitable Work

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Mungling

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I have often heard it claimed that the Catholic Church is the world’s largest NGO charity (the third largest is a number claim I have heard). This makes sense to me, and I believe it, but I’ve never really seen any citation for this statistic.

Would anyone be able to send me a reputable source for this statistic? I’ve tried looking myself but no such luck.

Thanks in advance.
 
This would be a difficult number to arrive at because of the Church structure. Much of the charitable work is run through parish organizations around the world from varying donations and by national and international groups that are better known. The information should be reported to a larger body, but it may not be or it may depend on the type of charity.

Some of this appears in the form of food drives at the parish level, St Vincent collection, Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas/Catholic Charities/Catholic Relief Services/etc, the work in hospitals, Dorothy Day houses, Church sponsorship of soup kitchens and pantries, poor boxes, and so on. It seems fragmented but all of this activity revolves around and is connected to the Catholic Church and much of the work is done by volunteers.

Here is a video that gives a picture of the Church’s role in Africa
youtube.com/watch?v=hB5Dcz6984M
 
regression said:
I think that means non-governmental organization.
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Ohana said:
Well first of all, what does NGO mean???
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Yes, sorry, I shouldn’t have used acronyms. I did mean NGO.
bengland said:
This would be a difficult number to arrive at because of the Church structure. Much of the charitable work is run through parish organizations around the world from varying donations and by national and international groups that are better known. The information should be reported to a larger body, but it may not be or it may depend on the type of charity.

Some of this appears in the form of food drives at the parish level, St Vincent collection, Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas/Catholic Charities/Catholic Relief Services/etc, the work in hospitals, Dorothy Day houses, Church sponsorship of soup kitchens and pantries, poor boxes, and so on. It seems fragmented but all of this activity revolves around and is connected to the Catholic Church and much of the work is done by volunteers.

Here is a video that gives a picture of the Church’s role in Africa
youtube.com/watch?v=hB5Dcz6984M
Click to expand...
Thank you. I really hadn’t accounted for the decentralization of the Church’s charitable . This does present a problem for citing the Church as the largest/third largest/other impressive number since it is difficult albeit not impossible to verify.

Not that I doubt the extent of Her charitable work, but others might.
 
"Catholic Charities, USA (CCUSA), with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, was founded in 1910 as the National Conference of Catholic Charities. In 2010, Catholic Charities’ centennial year,[8] more than 1,700 agencies, institutions and organizations composed the Catholic Charities network - including individual organizations of the dioceses, such as the Archdiocese of Chicago. Nearly 90 cents of every dollar donated to Catholic Charities agencies goes directly to programs and services.[9] In 2008, Catholic Charities agencies served over 8 million individuals.

Together, with the local, diocesan-associated Catholic Charities, it is the second largest social service provider in the United States, surpassed only by the federal government. ."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charities

I know its just the US and not the world, but hope it helps.

Peace
David
 
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