“I wear a size 10, or even a 10 ½,” he said as he leaned his face down toward the gap in the window so that we could hear him from behind the glass that separates our office from the outside hallway. “See these old ones?” and he pointed to the shoes and held up his foot, “They’re all worn out.”
Not all of the requests that show up at our front office window so clearly fit the Gospel commandment, not all offer such an obvious parallel to Jesus’ own example of caring for the real, actual feet of the Apostles. So when a chance comes to live out the injunction in such a literal way, how can we refuse!
Dozens of requests like these come through the Karidat office each day, some in person and others over the phone. With priests and clergy already occupied on the parish level, and devoting themselves to celebrating liturgies and providing a solid Catholic education for our youth, it was important to have a branch of the Diocese dedicated wholly to serving some of the material needs of the people of the CNMI. That is one of the reasons why Monsignor Camacho (he was not yet Bishop at the time) started up a “Catholic Social Services” in our Diocese almost 37 years ago. The name has since changed to “Karidat” and that is probably the one that is most familiar to our readers today.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI numbers three primary responsibilities of the Church: to proclaim the word of God, to celebrate the sacraments, and to exercise the ministry of charity. Works of charity—which is to say works of love—are not incidental in the life of the Church, but spring from her very being, mirroring the very heart of God who is Love. “As a community,” wrote Benedict XVI in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), “the Church must practice love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community.” (cf.20)
It is not realistic to expect that our busy priests or our bishop can attend to each and every one of the personal and material requests for assistance that come to their doors (literally sometimes!). So Karidat exists in order to “specialize” in works of mercy, and not only for the benefit of the Catholic members of our parishes and villages, but strives to be available to all people who find themselves in need of help or in crisis. And it is not only about shoes, either: Karidat provides counseling and assistance to individuals fleeing situations of abuse or even enslavement, we offer a temporary housing program and an emergency food bank, we distribute goods to people who face the aftermath of storms, a much overdue paycheck or other unforeseen situations.
We hope to share some of these stories over the following weeks and months in this new column. Until then, think of Karidat as being part of the “organized” and “ordered” service to the community that Pope Benedict wrote about.
Or picture it this way: imagine that you are looking down at the Earth from a birds eye view. Look over to Rome and lean in to hear as Pope Francis preaches on a couple of his favorite themes: mercy and love, as he speaks about the need to make them less abstract and more real and relevant on a local level. Now travel over to the East, over that Pacific blue and zoom in to see what is happening in our local Church, itself is a branch of our global Catholic (universal) Church family. Focus in until you can see Mt. Carmel Cathedral and then look south to Chalan Piao, to the tiny office that is Karidat, on Beach Road. Think of us all, here in the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, as real hands and real feet of love, serving the hands and feet of anyone who shows up outside a glass window in need of help.