THE "PANIS CARITATIS": SENSITISING AND SHARING

Paul Josef Cordes
Archbishop President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum

1999: YEAR OF CHARITY! Almost as if to mean that the holy door that will be opened for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 projecting us into the Third Millennium is charity, the essence of Christian life. Charity and Love merge: Ubi Caritas et Amor ibi Deus est. «And even if I distributed all my substances and my body to be burnt, but didn't have charity, it would serve me nothing» (1 Cor 13:3). This is how Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, recently proclaimed Doctor of the Church, lived it as a fundamental dimension of her own vocation: «In the heart of the Church I want to be love». The Pontifical Council Cor Unum, established on 15 July 1971 in response to a request made by Pope Paul VI, pressed by the duty of charity, in the framework of its own institutional tasks in the spreading of Charity, has followed Pope John Paul II's invitation to the Universal Church with the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (cf. TMA, 50 - 52), promoting, already in November 1995, an initiative to celebrate 1999 as the Year of the Charity in the individual Churches of all Countries and in the heart of the Universal Church.

«Charity, in its twofold reality as love of God and neighbour... has in God its source and its goal» (TMA, 50). Opening up to Trinity which is life of charity, the Christian manifests his own adhesion to the divine call with a life of charity. In the contemporary world attention towards man is increasing, which is expressed through solemn pronouncements and action programmes at the various world summits (Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Beijing), while, in concrete terms, one sometimes assists to a persistent and, at times, cruel violation of human rights, even the most elementary ones. Even in the field of Christianity, at least in theory, everyone agrees with the need for love to mark human relationships because we all want to be recognised as brothers in Christ, while, in practice, sociological and environmental considerations refrain in many the rush of love. The parable of the Good Samaritan effectively explains these attitudes which are also true of numerous Christians.

«In this third year the sense of being on a "journey to the Father" should encourage everyone to undertake, by holding fast to Christ the Redeemer of man, a journey of authentic conversion. This includes both a "negative" aspect of liberation from sin, and a "positive" aspect, that of choosing good, accepting the ethical values expressed in the natural law, which is confirmed and deepened by the Gospel» (TMA, 50). This is the view behind the initiative of the Year of Charity 1999, which the Pontifical Council Cor Unum is trying to co-ordinate urging concrete programs and promoting actions that give the testimony of «Catholics» because they are directed to the good of all. Among these actions, besides the already announced initiative of the «Holy Father's 100 projects», begun some time ago, which is aimed at urging and supporting the faithful in the realisation of the seven works of corporal and spiritual mercy, Cor Unum is working towards supporting that of Panis Caritatis, the Bread of Charity.

Panis Caritatis

A large company involved in the field of planning is committed to the organisation and promotion of the Panis Caritatis in Italy, directing part of the profits to Cor unum for the work of Charity which the Holy Father carries out in the name of the Universal Church in favour of those suffering in the world due to the many calamities, and in particular because of hunger. The initiative, which will kick off at the beginning of Lent 1998, will continue until the year 2000. A decision still has to be taken on how to extend it to other Countries. However here we want to illustrate, although briefly, the reasons that have led the Pope's Council for Charity to support it.

The Panis Caritatis is a simple bread, adequate for the daily consumption of families. Weighing around 300 grams, it has a circular symbolic shape made up of twelve slices placed around a circle. A Bread of this kind which is shared within the family responds to the call of the Pope: «The Jubilee can also offer an opportunity for reflecting on other challenges of our time, such as... the problems connected with respect for women's rights and the promotion of the family and marriage» (TMA, 51). It is, therefore, the plan of dialogue which reinvigorates the members of the family in the bond of mutual love. And the family, in eating that Bread, takes conscience that it will become the material bread on other tables, where the most elementary foods are missing. It is, therefore, a Bread divided and shared.

Among the primary purposes of this initiative is in fact that of sensitising in a particular way the Christian community to the needs of so much people so that the Lord in the final judgement may reveal to us «...I was hungry and you gave me food» (Mt 25:35). Bread is the fundamental element of food in many cultures and, therefore, it takes on the image of all food. Giving out some bread to eat means fulfilling the needs of whom doesn't have what it takes to survive. Bread and its shape represent the symbol of the first Christian Community, which the Acts of the Apostles describe as follows: «They were attentive in listening to the teaching of the Apostles and in fraternal union, in the sharing of bread and in prayers» (At 2:42). It is therefore not a question of a mere gesture of philanthropy, with which one simply gives what is left over, but the intention is to prolong the gift of the love which was experimented as a gift that God makes to the believer. Faith in the love of God is so strong that it allows man to forget his concerns for tomorrow and in turn give himself. With this plan, the Pontifical Council Cor Unum wants to renew to each and everyone the pressing invitation to take on together and individually precise and direct responsibilities in the plan for a correct and authentically fraternal sharing of the goods of creation. «The complementarity and diversities of vocations and charisms - states the document published by the Council on 24 October 1996 on Hunger in the world direct the answer of love of man, called to become "providence" for his brothers, "a wise and intelligent providence, that drives man's development and the development of the world, in harmony with the will of the Creator, for the well-being of the human family and the conclusion of the transcendent vocation of every individual» (Cor Unum, Hunger in the World, 56).

We are reminded of this total and brotherly sharing and this personal and community commitment also by the prayer that with Christ we address to the Common Father. In fact, in «Our Father», we ask for Bread to live, aware that physical life is not enough. In the depth of our heart the desire for love is acute, and it can only be satisfied by total love. The hunger that we feel in our ourselves is the need of God: it is Him alone who answers to our desire for the infinite. «Give us our daily bread» is a strong request to the Lord to show us that he loves us and does not forget us. We, who in order to deserve him, also invoke the pardon of our unfaithfulness toward Him in the measure in which we commit to forgive ours reciprocally between persons and community. And, thus, material and spiritual Bread, divided and shared, also takes on the Manzonian meaning of «bread of pardon», that Fra' Cristoforo of I Promessi Sposi always carries with him as the constant call to the conversion of the heart.

To love freely: it is the great occasion that we have today to return credibility to the Gospel. The Year of Charity will not only give an opportunity to denounce the different forms of poverty and misery, or to launch new appeals, analyses or protests. Of course, these are inevitable, because the needs which surround us are significant. But what counts is action. The inflation of words has devalued the word. Jesus' favourite disciple, writes in his first letter: «We don't love with words nor with the tongue, but with the facts and in truth»(1 Jn 3:18).