3 December, 2015

From January 4, 2016 on, His Excellency Raphael Archbishop Minassian will assume the presidency of  Caritas Georgia, along with the presidency of Armenian Caritas. This will be a two-year presidency, according to an agreement with the other Catholic bishops of the territory on a rotation system of presidency. The scope of the mission of Caritas Georgia includes Armenian Catholics, Georgian Catholics of Latin rite and Chaldean Catholics. In the Southern Georgia, the main target group is Armenians.

We had an interview with Mr. Wim Piels-the ad interim Executive Director of Caritas Georgia, who met with His Excellency Raphael Archbishop Minassian on December 3, 2015. Piels comes from the Netherlands, a devoted Catholic, with a long working experience in many countries, where Caritas centres operate. During the meeting, the future projects of Caritas Georgia were discussed. In 2016, a workshop is planned to be held in Tbilisi with the aim of preparation of young animators who will carry out various projects of their own in their communities.

“The main goal is to have more Catholic young people active in charity, in social justice to prepare them to be more active in those fields, to make use of all the opportunities around them because many of the communities are not well off. You cannot develop people, they must develop themselves. We can activate them to reflect on the questions “Who am I? What can I do for my community as a Christian, as a Catholic?”, to generate a lot of active people around them”, said Mr. Wim.

According to the project, priests who are proficient in the Catholic Social Teaching will introduce to the future animators participating in the workshop the general principles of the Catholic Social Teaching, which will help them to build their projects and activities and implement the doctrine of the Catholic Church in their communities. The animators will be Catholics, but they will work with believers of other denominations as well, while carrying out their projects.

The main directions of Caritas Georgia are similar to those of Armenian Caritas, in accordance with general principles of Caritas Internationalis. Accordingly, the projects are being carried out in the following fields: health care (home care of sick and disabled people, rehabilitation centres, mobile medical centres), social (food centres, asylums for the poor and elderly), youth (day care centres for children, care for the children without parental care, living in the street), community development (improving water supply, irrigation system, support to farmers), support to people in emergency situations, etc.