The 21st General Assembly of Caritas Internationalis, meeting in Rome from 23 to 28 May, ratified the election of Aloysius John as the new general secretary for the next four years. John, a native of India but of French citizenship, already head of the institutional development and capacity building sector of Caritas Internationalis, was first voted by the Representative Council (RepCo) of the Confederation, and then presented to the delegates at the meeting for the final vote. He succedes Michel Roy, at the end of two mandates, which on Tuesday 28th was also honored by Msgr. Bruno Marie Duffé, secretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, of the Cross of San Gregorio Magno, conferred on him on behalf of the Holy Father Francis. On Monday 27 May, Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, was re-elected president of Caritas for a second four-year term.
In addition to the statutory issues, the meeting - entitled this year "One Human Family" - touched, among others, on the topics of communion in the Church, of ecumenical and interreligious partnerships, of humanitarian policies, of emergency responses in cases of natural disasters or conflicts, the implementation of Laudato si ', the fight against abuse and the safeguarding of vulnerable children and adults.
During the Assembly, as part of the global "Share the Journey" campaign, dedicated to migration, a mosaic was presented, created by the artist Stefano Maria Giradi who, through hundreds of photos of migrants and refugees, reconstructs Nasrin's face , a woman who works with the Rohingya in a camp of Caritas Bangladesh.
Pope Francis met the participants of Caritas Internationalis twice during the Assembly: Thursday 23 May for the inaugural mass (Italian trext original) and Monday 27 in the audience at the Apostolic Palace.
