Catholic charity urged by bishop to keep its mission

Bishop said it would be a tragedy if they “lost their dream of building God’s Kingdom”

Bishop Donal McKeown has urged Trócaire, the Church’s overseas aid agency, to ensure that it stays true to its mission and does not go down the same route as many Church-founded organisations that have become secularised in their work and ethos.

Bishop McKeown warned that “when it comes to spending its own unrestricted funds, Trócaire has to be clear, firstly, that its motivation is the spread of the Kingdom of God through the building up of human solidarity and of a more just world, and, secondly, that it is not embarrassed to repeat the Gospel call to giving from generous hearts, and not just from deep pockets.

“Otherwise it could go the way of many Church-founded organisations that have essentially become secularised in their work and ethos while retaining the historical link to Church communities and to their huge generosity,” he said.

Bishop McKeown made his remarks during a Mass to remember the dead who supported Trócaire, at the Good Shepherd church in Belfast last week.

Tragedy

He said it would be a tragedy if bodies such as Trócaire “lost their dream of building God’s Kingdom and yearned only to do well in the development organisation popularity poll”. 

“That would be a betrayal of the many supporters, whose generosity was motivated by the compassion of God and not merely by brand loyalty.  These were people who were driven by the scriptural dream of a new heaven and new earth, and not just by slick marketing,” the Bishop of Derry said.

Bishop McKeown acknowledged that Trócaire “is very committed to this way of being a development agenda”.  However, he noted that, in some ways, “there is actually a greater need for their educational outreach. 

“If we are to be a missionary Church, seeking to get out a message that so many of our contemporaries have never heard, then Trócaire has a wonderful range of inspiring Church documents, as well as a band of dedicated staff and supporters who both know that message and seek to live by it.”