Giving to charity is fraught with difficulties for Catholics in the modern world: secularism has meant that many good and worthy organisations have become involved in abortion, contraception and foetal stem-cell research.
How do you choose to whom to give? Is there a resource for Catholics to point them in the direction of “safe” charities?
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Charities have a related problem in that many are corrupt and any can cause more harm than good. Examples are legion. Not only that, they do not address the root causes of a problem, but simply give good people the impression that progress is made – by covering it over. Charities are a safe haven for various ‘celebrities’ to attach to, picking up huge expenses to cut a ribbon or make a televised visit. Royalty enjoys this. All kinds of unsavoury people use charity as a fig leaf of respectability. Christ would condemn all of this, as would the Good Samaritan, whose charity was direct .
Charity is also a lottery, depending on which cause is picked up by the media. I remember a TV ‘star’ organised a child free helpline for abused children to call. Everyone thought ‘well done’. Six months later I read a few lines which said that the service closed through lack of funds.But quietly.
I welcome “safe” charities as mentioned, if they can avoid all the problems above.
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http://www.spuc.org.uk/education/charities/
is a worthy source
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Personally, I don’t give to any organised charity any more.
Won’t bother explaing why.
I suggest giving the money direct to someting local, like a dog sanctuary, that you can visit and get to know.
Or give it directly, to the local priest with the assumption he’ll use it wisely.
I know ours does.
There are lots of very poor, very old, folk round where we live, who can use a few euros.
Sure that’s true all over.
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…the root of charity is humility..when we see what we are then we understand what can we give…whether its time money or self…self is the best gift since its us giving what the creator gave us….the only thing we possess is self repayment of love with the same coin …also being kind to people we dont particularly like is a great mode of charity…for example toads and such other fearsome rascals..since Jesus said blessed are the peace makers…we see that wisdom is nothing more than properly ordered knowledge..to set things in order belongs to peace…and so that is why Jesus said the peacemakers will be sons and daughters of God..so being nice to people we dont like mortifies the will making us subjects of the passion..anyway the effect of charity is wisdom which in turn creates a properly ordered world and so things move according to God’s will whatever that may be i am sure it is realized through the comandments….Augustine says (De Serm. Dom. in Monte i, 4) that “wisdom is becoming to peacemakers, in whom there is no movement of rebellion, but only obedience to reason.”….
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Contributing to one’s local Right To Life chapter is, of course, without difficulties – at least none that I can see. I suppose the charity that most pulls at my heartstrings, though, is The Smile Train. Although I haven’t done it yet (nervous that my choice of charity might not be everyone’s), I’ve always wanted to suggest to the periodic Bible Study group at my parish that we each contribute a fixed amount during our sessions to this medical cause. That way, at the end of our meetings, we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing for sure that some tangible good has come from our meditations. But, as my colleague, The Raven, will confirm, whatever charity we favour, it’s our moral obligation to closely inspect their prospectus and audited financial statements. Even The Smile Train is not without its critics when it comes to administrative expenses:
http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/smiletrain.html
…but neither is it without its supporters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_Train#Financials
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And as our friend, Mundabor, always used to exhort us, if all else fails, please support Aid To The Church In Need. Each year I buy enough copies of their Rosary booklets featuring the sublime artwork of Bradi Barth (RIP) to give one to each of our R.C.I.A. catachumens. Which reminds me: “Sister Kathleen, how many copies do you need this year?”
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…another Kathleen, not our Kathleen, but a good daughter of Ireland nonetheless.
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I see my comment at 20:02 “is awaiting moderation“. I think that’s because I used too many links. Now, if The Central Committee will be so kind as to give me a pass, I’ll be ever so much obliged 😉
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“Each year in India, 35,000 children are born with clefts. They face a life of shame and isolation. One hospital is determined to help them all.”
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Smile Pinki
Available at various places
Oscar (not that I care) for Best Documentary Short, 2008.
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God bless everyone, and in case you think, like Golden does, that I’m a night owl, it’s precisely 22:00 hours EST from where I blog 😉
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johnhenry, it’s only 10 or 11 morning where you are when I myself am night-owling, which is most of the time, and I do enough of it for the both of us. Remember I’m out checking on possible Muslims contriving each midnight to run off with Spain, even with Toad, rebrites and Frere Rabit still in it.
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You are right to quizz us on our paranoia, Golden.
After all what can the fanatical Muslims do in Spain?
So far, only blow up a train or two, kill 191, and wound a few thousand people.
No more than make life difficult, really.
A mezquita in Moratinos is not yet even in the planning stage. (Not as far as I know, anyway.)
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Dear Toad, rest assured that in my medianoctal Muslim-monitoring manoeuvres, when I lurk in the shadows of village minarets in an ample full-flowing full-facial-frontal-and-backal black ensemble (together with a couple of my lady friends from the Cathedral parish), we shall immediately report any suspiciously hushed and scheming talk we hear of “Al-Andalus” to the competent authorities.
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An interesting story of a young Australian lass, Moira Kelly, a laywoman and still very much one of our Catholic sisters, who left her convent school early to do good things, and who years later now heads a foundation supported by corporations, major hospitals and things like Rotary. The foundation is dedicated to bringing seriously deformed and injured children to Australia for corrective surgery.
Here is her adopted son, who she found in an orphanage run by Mother Teresa’s sisters in Baghdad.
If in Australia, why not in other relatively better-off countries?
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johnkonnor, thank you sincerely for your post above.
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“…another Kathleen, not our Kathleen, but a good daughter of Ireland nonetheless”
Only half Irish dear John Henry! 😉 On my father’s side. My mother was an Anglican (English, naturally) who converted to Catholicism when she was only 18 years old.
Thanks for all your great links. There are a lot of kind and generous people out there who are fulfilling Our Blessed Lord’s command to “love their neighbours”.
And that is why it is so lamentable, that many otherwise well-meaning charities have been hijacked by the secular world, and now turn to methods to tackle poverty and suffering that are absolutely unacceptable to faithful Catholics. In fact pressurising women to be sterilised, or have abortions, as a form of doing so has quite the contrary effect! Children are a consolation and a joy to those who have little in the way of material goods.
Aid to the Church in Need has always been my favourite charity too; it does an enormous amount of good in the world, feeding both the material and spiritual needs of people.
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Kathleen, I’m only quarter-Irish, so you win, except that I was born on St Patrick’s Day; so perhaps I’m entitled to be called an Honourary Gael? The nickname I’ve given to my Guardian Angel is “Galen”, which of course is “Angel” spelled backwards. Or sideways.
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“johnhenry, it’s only 10 or 11 morning where you are when…”
Golden, my children and other relatives are spread around the world; and so I now insist, when they want to “Skype”, that they reference Eastern Standard Time. It’s so nice, as an older geezer, to be able to make demands like that.
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