At the recent Vatican meeting of Catholic Charities Pope Francis praised the participants for their concern for the poor and marginalized, but warned them of the danger of “fake charity.”

Carol Glatz writes in Catholic Herald:

Charity is not a sterile service or a simple donation to hand over to put our conscience at ease,” he said. “Charity is God our Father’s embrace of every person, particularly of the least and those who suffer.”

The church is not a humanitarian organization, the Pope said. It is something so much bigger: “in Christ, it is the sign and instrument of God’s love for humanity and for creation.”

The Pope urged the Caritas representatives to live out this charity freely, humbly and with a spirit of poverty.

“One cannot live charity without having a personal relationship with the poor — to live with the poor and for the poor” so as to learn from them how charity is sharing.

“It is necessary to always be careful not to fall into the temptation of living a hypocritical or deceptive charity, identified with almsgiving” or fundraising or used as a “sedative” to relieve an uneasy conscience, the Pope said.

“This is why one must avoid equating charitable activity with philanthropic strength or with well-planned efficiency or with over-the-top and flamboyant organization,” he said.

Charity vs. Humanitarianism