At 8:45 a.m. on October 16, 2023, at the Pastoral Center of Da Lat Diocese, with the presence of nearly 100 attendees, Caritas Da Lat (CDL) organized the 2023 Summit with theme "Reaching out to the Poor", in the alignment with the theme of Caritas Vietnam in the post-Covid 19 pandemic context and with today's social situation.
The Summit is pleased to welcome Bishop Dominic, the Parish Priests, the Parish Priests of Caritas, the Parish Priests, Caritas brothers and sisters, Caritas’ representatives from minor community, benefactors and guests. ... In the opening session, Director Father Gioan Bosco Hoang Van Chinh gave the speech and emphasized that: "The Summit is the time for all of us to meet together to share and summary of charitable activities in the diocese every 3 years. However, due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic, this Summit been organized after four years since last ones. And this is also an opportunity for Caritas Da Lat to celebrate their 15th anniversary of its re-establishment.”
Continued with some announcements by Ms. Maria Goretti Dinh Thi Hong Phuc about praising achievements over the past 4 years, Specially
Regarding the Caritas Parish Network, a number of parishes have actively promoted their role by organizing training sessions on Caritas spirituality and calling for participation in Caritas. Laudato Si and the Environment Program: is a global activity in response to Pope Francis' urgent call to act on climate change. In this program, Father Director of Caritas Da Lat wrote a letter calling for action during Laudato Si week (May) and Creator season (from September 1 to October 4) every year. In solidarity with the Catholic Solidarity Committee, Caritas of Da Lat County, other religions, governments, businesses and disabled people's associations, we have co-organized the discussion panel called "Together, taking care of the Common House" on the occasion of the World Environment Day 2023. Life Protection Program: CDL has promoted the establishment of the Billings Da Lat group, with 94 courses for 2,811 students in 18 parishes and dioceses.
Prayer services at the fetal cemetery promoting life has been also held every November.
Charity and study promotion programs: The “For Tomorrow” scholarship program, the support fund run by the Vinh Tuyet - Ngu Quynh family, receives a lot of support and attention from sponsors and the cooperation of parish priests, as well as Caritas parishes. The diocese's four charity programs (rice bowls for the lonely elder, education promotion, medicine cabinet, house building) were initiated in the diocese by Bishop Peter in 1994 and are managed by the Bishop's House. By early 2022, the program will be transferred to Caritas. The limitation of the program’s fund was only enough to maintain 2 more years for the study promotion program and less than 5 years for the lonely elderly program. Community support during COVID pandemic: CDL had joined hands in the vegetable shipment program to send goods to the most serious affected areas with a total of 954 tons of agricultural products and 1.7 billion VND. Many parishes also carried out relief activities very enthusiastically.
There are some significant achievements such as: Supporting people with disabilities to integrate into the community: Support in distributing wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and at the same time improve the capacity of the executive board and other staff. Association members on personal development, advocacy skills, fundraising, sales, vocational training... Trong Duc Project: provides a comprehensive health care model that helps enhance dignity and improve the patient’s living standard for male (from 2016) and female (from 2022) patients. Medical support activities include dispensing medication for psychiatric treatment and common illnesses, and providing first aid and referral. Social, spiritual, organizing daily work, recreational therapy activities, sports, employment, holiday events throughout the year, accompanying family and connecting with recovered patients’ family …
Tu Dan Development Project: implemented in 17 villages in Lam Dong province. The main activity of the project is to accompany the community in building solidarity in common work, developing sustainable agriculture and preserving and promoting traditional cultural values. In the past 4 years, CDL has organized many classes and workshops to improve skills and knowledge about community organizations, PGS certification, entrepreneurship, non-timber forest products (NTFP), and ecological agriculture (NNST), environment, knowledge about ethnic minority rights. Results: Forming 37 community organizations (groups) to learn and practice agribusiness together, 535 households applying the agribusiness model, 8 cultural traditional groups, 3 cooperative groups, 1 cooperative group with CFGS certification and Organic TCVN, Caritas Long Xuyen has formed and is operating the Self-People development project. The report concludes with a number of proposals, including calling for additional funding to maintain the diocese's charity programs.
The Bishop extremely impressed and given compliments to the activities that Caritas Da Lat has done. He emphasized the message of “Not turning a blind eye to any poor person” as if to evoke charity and compassion in us. When we commit and sacrifice for the poor, we are doing it for God because God is also Caritas.
Representatives of Phi Lieng Parish, Tung Nghia Parish, with the support from Caritas of Da Lat, had also shared impressive activities. Specifically, Phi Lieng parish has spread environmental protection activities through the “Together We” campaign to quarters in the parish, parishioners and local government agencies. The parish is pleased to welcome 400 people to join the Church on this upcoming Mission Sunday.
Constructive comments and discussions during the congress are also valuable encouragemnt for diocesan Caritas to grow further. Parish priest Phi Lieng has suggested that Caritas could arrange a store or mini supermarket to help promote indigenous products as well as provide output for people doing ecological agriculture. Students receiving scholarships in Tung Nghia parish have joined monthly online activities, from this activity the non-Catholic pupils have experience in praying, the community have had chances to guide them to join and continue to contribute and giving support for followers. That is also an idea to help diocesan Caritas accompany more closely with children receiving the “For Tomorrow” scholarship fund. The idea of asking for a diocesan-wide Mass (e.g. Ash Mass) for parish charity activities (50%) and diocese charity activities (50%) was also proposed in the conference. In response to the concerns of a District Father who had difficulty inviting parishes to join Caritas, the Director quoted Pope Benedict's words in the message God is love: "Charity is a duty." duty of every Christian. The Church, as a community, must practice charity. To do so, it is required to organize charity as a precondition for an orderly common service.” The comments also emphasized the important role of the Bishop and the Director of Caritas in inviting interested parish priests to support the establishment and expansion of the Caritas network to parishes.
Father Director also shared the content of the national Caritas summit that just took place on September 26 to 28, 2023 in Kontum. The min purpose of this This summit is to provide training Father Directors, Deputy Directors and office staff of diocesan Caritas on "Caritas International Management Standards" (CIMS). CIMS is a mandatory requirement for member organizations to promote organizational development in efficient use of resources, avoidance of waste and mismanagement, and accountability.
Finally, Father also raised the orientation for 2024: Implementing the "Together We" Campaign with the message of taking care of Nature and The Poor together, Caritas Da Lat also follows the action orientation for 2024 of Caritas Vietnam. Nam as follows: (1) Environmental care: by placing trash bins accompanied by media education programs, researching waste treatment models or activities promoting CVN's Green Saturday message. (2) Caring for The Poor: dioceses within their capacity can organize a general welfare program such as clean water projects, free clinics, dormitory for poor students, nursing homes, etc. .. (3) Continue to expand the Caritas network throughout the Diocese.
The summit ended at 12:00 with a big gratitude feeling to God. May every Christian, especially Caritas members, always have the heart of God and not turn a blind eye to any poor person. We hope that Caritas's heart and charitable activities in the diocese continue to expand.
Caritas Dalat (CDL)
