18 July 2016

Since June 7, 2016, every week meetings and seminars have been organized in the hall of the social center “Emily Sun ” of Armenian Caritas’, with the participation of all of the staff of Armenian Caritas in Gyumri. These  meetings are run by the Armenian Catholic Church priest Fr. Joseph Galstyan with the blessing of the General President of Armenian Caritas His Exc. Raphael Archbishop Minasyan and with the support of the Armenian Caritas administration.

The theme of the meetings is the Catholic or Universal Church’s social theology, which is the ideological foundation of the mission of Caritas Internationalis. During the meetings the priest speaks about the identity of Caritas, its spiritual character, the aims of its activity and about the doctrine of the Catholic Church, according to which Caritas is organizing its activity in different parts of the world. Passages, citations from various encyclical letters of roman pontiffs, from the charter of Caritas Internationalis have been presented to the staff. Each of the meetings lasts 1 hour. Different issues are discussed, which refer to the practical work and the theology, the participants come out with their opinions about scriptural passages or ecclesiastical documents and analyzing how the principles of the doctrine of the Church are reflected in their work.

Armenian Caritas has over 2 decades of rich experience in social work, is guided by gospel principles and the development of a healthy society having in vision the defense of human rights. In this terms, it is very important for the staff to reflect regularly on their own ideological frame and reevaluate their own work.

The aims of the seminars are the following:

1.to support the effective actualization of the mission of the Armenian Caritas and of the elaboration  of the  new perspective projects, in accordance with the Catholic Church’s doctrine.

2.to provide the Caritas Staff with opportunities a better understanding and knowledge of  organization’s ideology, mission motives, and purposes.

3.to give the staff tools, thinking principles for giving a meaning to their own work, to understand newly the value and the motive of their own work and accordingly to be more devoted, to organize their work more effectively, to consider it a service to the highest moral values and goals making sure that the source and guarantee for the truthfulness thereof is the Doctrine of the Church;

4.to form a platform for regular talks and discussions about the spiritual and moral base of the organization, about its uniqueness and its difference from other social services, to talk about God and the spirituality, to share ideas and feelings;

5.to support the self-recognition of the social- spiritual identity of Caritas and for better understanding of Caritas’ role in the Church and society.

6.to support the Church’s evangelical mission, which is an important part of the Caritas’ mission.

Some of the presentation materials are the following: Meeting 1,2 III meeting