The worldwide umbrella organization of Caritas’ 165 national organizations, Caritas Internationalis, has a new president, as Kathpress reports today: Archbishop of Tokyo Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi was elected to this role last night at the 22nd General Assembly of the most important organization of help from the church, which will be held in Rome until Tuesday, comes from a statement.
The president of Caritas Austria, Michael Landau, who is also president of Caritas Europe and participated in the election along with 400 other delegates from around the world, congratulated the Steyler Missionaries on Twitter. He wished him luck in his four-year term.
Three decades experience
Kikuchi is President of the Episcopal Conference of Japan and Secretary General of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC). For his additional task, he brings with him three decades of Caritas experience. Already in 1995 he was a volunteer in the Bukavu refugee camp, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire).
From 1999 to 2004 he was executive director of Caritas Japan and from 2007 to 2022 its president. He was also President of Caritas Asia from 2011 to 2019, Member of the Executive Committee of Caritas Internationalis from 1999 to 2004 and Member of the Council of Representatives from 2011 to 2019.
In a first statement, the new president of the world association underlined that Caritas “must be at the forefront to welcome, accompany, serve and defend the poor and vulnerable”.