The National Catholic Register headlined, “Pope to Bishops: Keep Church Charities Catholic.” The reference is to a papal directive, dated Nov. 11 but released Dec. 1, “De Caritate ministranda,” or “The service of charity.” These are new guidelines on how the Catholic Church and Catholic organizations are to carry out their missions of charity.

The guidelines stress that charity is a core church mission and that if that mission is to be exercised well, then the charitable work of Catholics must be well organized. The guidelines refer to charitable work carried out by the Catholic church itself and also to charitable works carried out by lay organizations inspired by their Catholic faith.

The guidelines call for accountability-to church authorities and to the “legitimate” norms asserted by government.

Most striking: To be authentically “Catholic” charitable activities, the initiatives must “follow Catholic principles in their activity” and not accept commitments (e.g., strings on donations, partnership obligations) that might “in any way affect the observance of those principles.” A lay agency may only use the name “Catholic” with the written consent of the relevant Church authority. Bishops, while ensuring that charitable institutions under their supervision follow “legitimate civil legislation,” must also “ensure that the Church enjoys the right to carry out charitable activities.”

And this: “To ensure an evangelical witness in the service of charity, the diocesan Bishop is to take care that those who work in the Church’s charitable apostolate, along with due professional competence, give an example of Christian life and witness to a formation of heart which testifies to a faith working through charity. To this end, he is also to provide for their theological and pastoral formation, through specific curricula agreed upon by the officers of various agencies and through suitable aids to the spiritual life.”