Supporting initiatives

70. These Christians are led, first and foremost, by Religious and ordained pastors, who are called to give their lives to God and to their fellow men and women.

Throughout the history of the Church, since the time of the deacons in the Acts of the Apostles (Cf. Acts 6:1 ff) until today, there have been extraordinary men and women(⁹⁵), Religious Orders and Missionary Orders, associations of the Christian laity and Church institutions and initiatives that have set out to assist those living in poverty and the hungry. They have fought against suffering and misery in all its forms, in obedience to Christ.

The Church is thankful to all those who are presently performing these services by undertaking specific activities for the good of their neighbour, in dioceses, parishes, missionary organisations, charity organisations and other NGOs. They are handing on the love of God and demonstrating the authenticity of the Gospel.

The Catholic Church is present in every continent. She has almost 2,700 dioceses or circumscriptions with widely differing features(⁹⁶), many of which have long been occupied with combating hunger and poverty. Dioceses and parishes are the special places for discerning what Christians are able to achieve. In these situations they encourage the organisation of grassroots groups, local groups and whole communities. Welcoming communities, composed with a strong human dimension, can restore people's confidence, help organise better living, and draw people out of resignation and subjugation. The Gospel once again becomes a hope for the those living in poverty, in a crucible in which the strength of Christand the strength of the disinherited joint forces.

Each one is called to take part in this work. The call to love, which God sends out through the presence of our fellow humans who are suffering from hunger, must become a reality for each of us, whatever our state of life, place in the world and our most immediate surrounding. The wonderful variety of humanity, in the diversity of cultures, leads to an array of different commitments and missions.

Every Christian must, therefore, encourage local initiatives of all kinds. The Catholic Church knows that she can share this commitment with the other Christian Churches and religious communities, and with all men and women of goodwill. Humanitarian work is an important sphere of action for Christians. But, they must then make a particular contribution to ensuring that the purposes pursued by their association and in their own work are for the integral service of humanity, without excluding the spiritual dimension. In this way, they will be a bulwark against all those who might seek to deflect the dynamism of these associations to serve political ends inspired by materialism and by ideologies which ultimately always destroy the human being.