With the commitment to continue working at the service of the most vulnerable, the representatives of the Caritas of the Region concluded their XX Congress, in which they defined the main topics that will be worked on as a priority for the four-year period 2023-2027.

Gathered in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, between June 1 and 4, the close 120 Congress participants discerned in communities of life about the thematic axes that will accompany their work in: “Francisco's economy”; “migrations, displacements, trafficking and refuge”; “democracy and governability”; “Human Rights, peace and reconciliation”; “the care of the Common Home”; “young people in Caritas”; "Older adults"; “Parish Caritas”; “the identity of our Caritas and its organicity”; All these themes will be worked on with some transversalities such as Advocacy, Communications, Equity, transparency, safeguarding and integral ecology.

In their final declaration, Caritas commits to serving the most vulnerable in the face of the injustices that loom against the human person and against our Common Home to: “live Synodality, Solidarity and Fraternity together with the poor to renew hope”; which commits us to walk together with all the Caritas of our region, parish, diocesan and national Caritas.

This walk must be done as a community of solidarity, which leaves no one on the path, which includes everyone, generating fraternity and social friendship, where the culture of encounter is developed in favor of all, empowering the most vulnerable communities, feeling their presence as subjects of their own development that allows us to renew hope for better times.

Visits of Love

As part of the work carried out during the days of the Congress, the participants of the meeting made the so-called “Visits of Love” to the various parish communities of Puerto Rico. There were 12 groups that were distributed in different areas of the country to get to know people and talk with people and families about the work that the national Caritas does. The exchange of experiences was lived with great gratitude for the possibility of sharing and learning about new realities.

Change in SELACC board

Finally, the XX Caritas Congress coincides with the last mandate of the Latin American and Caribbean Secretariat, SELACC, which was led in the last four years by Bishop José Luis Azuaje, as its president, and by Father Francisco Hernández, in general coordination. Starting this June 5, 2023, the bishop of Yucatán, Mons. Gustavo Rodríguez, and Nicolás Meyer, Executive Director of Caritas Argentina, assume the new presidency, as General Coordinator, until 2027.