WHO WE ARE

Caritas Tajikistan is the social concern of the Catholic Church in this country. Thou a humanitarian organization, it keeps with the Church's values and with her understanding of the human condition.

In Deus Caritas Est, his encyclical about love of neighbor (that's the meaning of the Latin word Caritas) Pope Benedict XVI established some principles and guidelines that clearly convey our mission and identity. We see our mission in Tajikistan as “the expression of a love that seeks to promote man in the various arenas of life and human activity... in order to attend constantly to man's sufferings and his needs” (n. 19).

For us, “charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of the Church's nature, an indispensable expression of her very being” (n. 25). “Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew.”

Caritas “cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.” … Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply” (n. 28).

Thou development is the key to progress and social wellbeing, “Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc.” (n. 30). No place to disregard “assistencial” work.

Our charitable activity “must be independent of parties and ideologies. It is not a means of changing the world ideologically, and it is not at the service of worldly stratagems, but it is a way of making present here and now the love which man always needs” (n. 30).

Caritas Tajikistan is a church-related humanitarian organization and we have no desire to hide our identity, drawn upon Christian values; however, “Charity cannot be used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays considered proselytism. Love is free; it is not practiced as a way of achieving other ends... Those who practice charity in the Church's name will never seek to impose the Church's faith upon others.” (n. 30-31)