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Caritas leaders have been replaced with a temporary administrator after Pope Francis suspended the secretary-general, Aloysius John (pictured right).
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (pictured left), whose second term as Caritas president was to end in May, has also lost his position.
Francis appointed a temporary administrator to oversee improved management policies and to prepare for the election of new officers in May.
Caritas Internationalis is a hub for 162 charitable organisations in 200 countries. Its mission is to serve the poor and most vulnerable. The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development oversees it.
The Dicastery said a review by an independent panel on Caritas Internationalis’s workplace environment found no evidence of financial mismanagement or sexual impropriety.
In a statement it said, however, “other important themes and areas for urgent attention emerged from the panel’s work.
“Real deficiencies were noted in management and procedures, seriously prejudicing team-spirit and staff morale.”
Pier Francesco Pinelli, a business management consultant, and two psychologists conducted the review, which included interviewing current and past employees.
Francis has now appointed Pinelli to temporarily oversee the Dicastery. Maria Amparo Alonso Escobar, a Caritas veteran, and the Rev. Manuel Morujão SJ will assist him.
Tagle will also assist Pinelli prepare for the future by taking “special care of relations with the local churches and the member organisations,” the papal decree says.
The Dicastery says the officers’ suspension “has no impact on the functioning of member organisations and the services of charity and solidarity they provide around the world.
“On the contrary, it will serve to strengthen such service.”
Tagle says member organisations should be reassured knowing that the Pope’s decision came after “a careful and independent study of the working environment of the secretariat and the governance exercised by the people and bodies in charge.”
The papal decree, he said, is “a call to walk humbly with God” and be open to a process of discernment, which includes acknowledging shortcomings.
The announcement about the Caritas leaders’ replacement came while about 100 Caritas representatives from around the world were having a two-day meeting in Rome.
They were reflecting on “how to strengthen local leadership within the confederation and enhance fraternal cooperation among member organisations”.
In his decree, Francis said Caritas Internationalis assists him and the bishops “in the exercise of their ministry to the poorest and most needy, participating in the management of humanitarian emergencies and collaborating in the spread of charity and justice in the world in the light of the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
“To improve the fulfilment of this mission it seems necessary to revise” the current regulations governing Caritas Internationalis, a task that Pinelli will guide, Francis said.
Pinelli says he hopes “to initiate processes of reconciliation and improvement that can bear fruit in the long run for this association”.
