Caritas Internationalis Secretary General: ‘Caritas is my home, my family, my vocation’

Caritas is one of the partners helping South Sudan returnees sail Nile river back to their communities as they flee violence in Sudan (ANSA)

By Linda Bordoni

May 17 2023

“Caritas is my home, my family, my vocation, “said Alistair Dutton as he introduced himself to journalists the day after he was elected new Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis.

He told us of how, as a Jesuit novice back in 1996, he ended up in eastern Nepal working with Bhutanese refugees who had fled ethnic and political oppression. They taught him a lesson, Dutton said, that continues to shape his mission today: that is to find ways to support and help the poor become the true protagonists of their future, because they know what they need, and “we need to lift their voices and support them in their agency. “

The new Secretary General, with years of experience within the Caritas family, including five years as Humanitarian Director at the headquarters in Rome, also spoke of how “the Spirit hovered over us during the Plenary Assembly” and of “the real desire of all participants to come together as one Caritas family – to serve the human family. “

He greeted the press together with other newly elected members of the Caritas leadership team: President Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, vice President Kirsty Robertson, and Treasurer Patrick Debucquois.

From left to right: Patrick Debucquois, treasurer; Kirsty Robertson, vice president; Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo; and Alistair Dutton, secretary-general

I asked him with what spirit and with what intent he intends to lead the Confederation on a new path after Pope Francis dissolved the former leadership board and appointed a temporary administrator last November.

“I really think what I’ve seen this last week, has set the tone for that,” Dutton said, acknowledging that what happened in the last few months was shocking for many.

But when we came together last week, he added, there was a real spirit of wanting to understand, wanting to know, and although there was some hurt and frustration, people came together in the spirit of wanting to “learn the lessons” and looking to the future.

“We need to regain that confidence and joy that is Caritas”

The general spirit, he said is the desire to “get back out” and move forward, and the atmosphere has been constructive and serene.

“I know,” he continued, “that our Holy See colleagues, the Holy Father, they all want us to achieve. So we need to come together as one Caritas family and get back to the good times (..) and do that amazing work – how Caritas brings God’s love out into the world. “

“Let’s focus on that and call the past the past,” he said.

An increasingly fragile world

The appointment comes at a time of great humanitarian concerns across the globe, with wars in Ukraine, Yemen, and Sudan as well as crises in Myanmar, Tigray, and DRC just to mention a few, as well as millions of people on the move, driven by Climate Change and poverty.

I asked him if these were part of the considerations that led to the drafting of the new Four-year Strategic Plan on the way forward for Caritas.

Dutton explained that the Strategic Plan does not focus on single emergencies but on the structures necessary to be able to respond to emergencies and long-term needs.

“Because the world is changing all the time,” he said, Caritas needs to put in place the structure and the capacity to bring relief and support to those who need it wherever the crisis arises.

At the moment, he explained, it’s Sudan, noting that just a couple of months ago this wouldn’t necessarily have been a priority.

“So it’s not in the strategic plan, but what we need to have in structure and the capacity so when Sudan happens, we can respond to Sudan,” he said, “When Ukraine is happening, we can respond in Ukraine.”

“Yes, the world has become more fragile and we have much greater inequality. The climate emergency is hurting the poorest first and worst, and they are the ones who have done the least to cause it. And then there are the man-made: conflicts that we’re seeing in so many different places.”

The strength of the network

What Caritas has, Dutton said, is a member, an organisation in each of these countries.

“So whilst yes, there’s a lot on our plate as Caritas, the great thing I have, is to be working with each of the members,” he noted.

The example of Ukraine

The new Secretary General highlighted the model of Ukraine where Caritas has two members – because of different rights of the Church. Together the two agencies’ achievements in Ukraine have been “absolutely phenomenal”, he said, rivalling the amount of work the Red Cross has managed to carry out thanks to their networks and the amount of work they’ve been able to do.

“The trick,” he said, “is not to think it’s all on my plate: Firstly, I will go mad, but secondly, I won’t be able to do it, and I wouldn’t do it so well.”

So the strategy is to ask the people in Ukraine what they need. what help they need. And sometimes, he said, it’s particular skills, so Caritas can send staff to help build or train or whatever, and then there is the financial flow so they can afford to do what they have to.

“Prayer is an enormous part of this,” Dutton added, noting that “every time they meet us, they say: we feel you with us.”

“So there are many different ways that members all around the world are supporting our member in Ukraine, and that’s what we can apply in every situation.”

Dutton went on to underline how this is an important approach, not only for Ukraine but also for example for small countries that may be facing a challenge. It gives them “the sense that they’re part of something, that they are able to do it.”

“They know that Caritas is there on their behalf, and they’re part of that as ‘one family’.”

4-Year Strategic Plan

Alistair Dutton told me the Strategic Plan drawn up during the Plenary Assembly in Rome highlights five priorities:

– One is about the relationship with the Church and how we work closely as part of the church;

– How we respond to emergencies;

– Integral human development;

– Working on different issues of advocacy;

– Capacity building and how we make sure that our organisations have the capacity to be able to respond when they need to and to get involved as they want to.

The Pope’s support

Pope Francis’ reiterated appeals for solidarity with those in need and his plea to give voice to those who are most forgotten go hand in hand with Caritas’ mission. I asked Dutton how significant the Pope’s pleas for prayer and attention are for Caritas.

“Pope Francis’s message is a real inspiration for us, and in many ways, it encapsulates our mission and where we all believe we should be,” he answered: “Caritas has to be on the periphery.”

“We can’t be comfortable in the centre.”

“We need to be dirty and bruised. We need to have the dirt under our fingernails and we need to be evangelised ourselves, by the poor. We need to go out and search for where we are being guided by the Spirit, and to really listen to the voice of those who are on the margins, who are on the peripheries, who suffer injustice,” he said.

“We need to hear them in order to know how to respond to them.”

Caritas is love

And what about us? What can we do, I asked the new Secretary General to give extra impetus to that response.

“In every country, you have a Caritas, and Caritas is love, and we can only do that, through the volunteers and the staff in that country: So please support your local Caritas, whether it’s with prayers, whether it’s with volunteering, whether it’s with money!”