The Integrity of Charity at Stake

The Integrity of Charity at Stake

Who in recent tumultuous years has not contemplated the concept of charity?  In the Lenten season, when alms are emphasized, most people at least think about giving.  However, the questions arise to what extent, to whom, how, and why?    Moreover, can one type of “charity” be better than others?  Are there any incidences of donating “time, treasure, or talent,” that are, in fact, not true charity?   

Only through the prism of our Faith, whereby Charity (rooted in agape)  as a theological virtue,  girded by the third theological virtue of Hope and guided by the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice can we discern authentic love.    Moreover, the world’s interpretation of charity will always be a stumbling block.  Some will always be deceived about the nature of charity—in ignorance or by personal motivations.  We are likely never to be in complete concurrence about its noblest expression.  This is the world, after all.

That established, I hovered on today’s most controversial recipients of America’s generosity, including the following:  immigrants,  USAID (US Agency for International Development), other international organizations, federal agencies, and funding of interstate programs always under girthed by political motivation.    I weighed if Trump and his loyalists are merely greedy, selfish, and unloving U.S. and world citizens, or if the screaming critics are righteous, in any way.  The scolding resounds in this country, around the world, and even in the Vatican.    On a local level, “next door neighbors” feel quite comfortable sniffing their disdain for either “side.”  Still,  most visibly and publicly active are those who  megaphone their discontent accusing Trump’s Administration of callousness and cruelty. 

Pope Francis's latest letter recently seemed to many to reaffirm that a conservative segment of the American population should be deemed basically evil acting.  While I once again experience sorrow and combat a temptation to react defensively, I hope to rebalance myself spiritually through probing Church teaching on charity and ensuring that I am well tuned in that virtue.  And, then, I pray that—along with others—I can simply share the Truth but be prepared to bear the rain of shame that may continue.   I can assert confidently that charity is not burning Teslas or shooting at those car dealerships; it is not preventing law enforcement officers from performing their duties in securing the safety of a community, state, or nation.

What is charity?  Maybe it is best to start with what it is not.  Charity is not  merely “giving.”  Even a drug dealer can give a  pity discount to a user.  How many “give” that which they do not want anyway?  Charity is not “sharing” other people’s property.  Various government reps boast their “giving” but they are merely redirecting confiscated, compelled  taxes and also ridiculously borrowing against the future.. Charity is not an organization or foundation, per se,  though such could be genuinely charitable in some ways, some better than others.  Always, too, only God can read the heart of those expressing charity.  Exterior expressions, even of time and talent, can reduce the integrity of charity if the person is primarily or solely motivated by such temptations as publicity, simply saving on taxes, or political posturing.

So, what is charity?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes significant coverage to charity (and love), all worth a deep dive.  Here though will be the emphasis on charity as a theological virtue, as love of God and neighbor,  and as expressed in moral living.   Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. (CCC 1822).  (Italics mine). Perhaps this can be summed of as the imitation of Christ, and for more clarification, Thomas Kempis’s Imitation of Christ and St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life would be most illuminating guides.  One conclusion is unavoidable.  Apart from God—Truth and Love—there is no authentic charity.  Indeed, charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction. (CCC 1829).

Moral life and charity go hand in hand.  “The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God.” (CCC 1828)

A careful and thorough evaluation of each of the “hinge” virtues reveals pursuit of wisdom is accordance with God’s law and order, healthy discipline, self restraint, courage in doing good and embracing our neighbors body and soul into eternity.  

With respect to the cardinal virtues (CCC 1835-1838) related to charity, prudence disposes the practical reason to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose right means for achieving it.  With USAID and other such government endeavors,  that would require knowledge and understanding of the Ten Commandments and Beatitudes in context with Scripture and all Church doctrine, because, if we love God above all things, that is our guide to dependable reason.  For one thing, the acronym “AID” would not be a silky veil for accomplishing evil on foreign soil in the name of “international development.”  Promoting confusion about sex identity, insisting on abortion access, and extorting or bribing countries to compromise  or outright betray their moral tenets can be neither the “right means” nor “true good.”   Worst of all, demanding certain country laws be nullified or new ones that mirror our own corrupt US  legislation is called extortion, not charity.

Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbor his due.   What is due our neighbor, near or far?  Is it not that which will sustain him or her, afford genuine opportunity for growth, physically and spiritually, and with the ultimate end of salvation for all eternity?  How can artificial contraception, surgical mutilation, confusion about personhood, and dangling dollars for compliance to such evil be just?  It cannot!  Foisting anti-Christian dictates in order to receive basic necessities while mocking genuine life giving and preserving health care is oppressively lethal.  Decades ago, the “ugly American” was excoriated for bringing counter cultural ideologies to foreign countries, especially in exchange for assistance.  Today, under the principles of population control and environmental objectives, many of these government and publicly sponsored organizations hide the ultimate objective in busy acronyms, such as USAID.  Human Life International Founder Father Paul Marx back in the 1980s exposed American led efforts that subsidized sterilization under the guise of inoculation against disease, and the like.   Since then, the faces have changed along with clever titles but not the deceit. 

With respect to justice for immigrants, that, too, is dependent on the immigrant, “legal” or not, being cognizant that they, too, must be just.  In an unfortunate situation years ago,  immigrant persons of acquaintance owed my husband and I money.  Long story short, we never received those funds, but sadder was the fact that property was taken, and an argument ensued about who had a right to it.   The puzzling but stunning conclusion was that one of these persons thought they were the ones wronged and “owed” it. 

Parenthetically, a caution that charity (love) never excuses bad or criminal behavior, and that consequences are necessary for the good of the whole and the whole good any person..   As an aside, how many  genuinely needy immigrants have been deprived, hurt or killed because of the cartels that swarmed our country.  So many narratives abound that underscore injustice.   

Puzzling is why the Church as led by Pope Francis does not highlight those wrongs or abuses.   All persons are due respect and acknowledgment of the dignity of their being in all aspects.   That includes the givers and recipients.  Charity can never be determined by the degree of submission to self destruction and demeaning of their faith roots.   Selfishnesses founded in resentment, by either, defeats the spirit of charity.

Fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.  Charity is at once both an easy and troublesome virtue.  Optimum charity is that which detects a need in another, near and far, and is moved to immediately relieve the suffering of those individuals.  It is often spontaneous though grounded in a firm knowledge of truth.  It does not count costs but still is prudent.  Certainly the Good Samaritan acted without self regard but nonetheless proceeded in a manner that demonstrated his ability to navigate the “system” of the inns and work within relational parameters (with the inn keeper).  One caveat is that the Good Samaritan, by what we know, was a man of means.  Still what is illustrated is that the wealthy can show a spirit of poverty.

Charity can exact sacrifice in those who are not so well off themselves, albeit many of the poor are richer in their personal giving than the wealthy.   Still, the poor are not always virtuous and should be on guard against the temptations of avarice and envy.  Sometimes suffering is salvific.   A friend recently related that she had heard that on one occasion when St. Pope John Paul II was speaking in Mexico, he referenced the blessing of poverty…and was booed.  While I did not find that reference, I did locate his address in Puebla Mexico on January 28, 1979 when he warned against a false Gospel.  He implored his audience to be watchful for purity of doctrine and even asserted that “Over and above unity in love, unity in truth is always urged for us.” Apostolic Journey to the Dominican Republic Mexico and the Bahamas; Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate vatican.va) I imagine that this today, in our age of relativism, would be definitely scorched.

Regardless, compassion means to “suffer with,” and in all circumstances we should all be willing to share without discrimination, but not in the absence of regard for good order.  We should not kill the Golden Goose in haste to feed the hungry, but we should be prepared to share the golden eggs without being like Midas at the end of the day.  Also, in pursuit of those “golden eggs,” recipients of aid should be careful not to have the proverbial “egg on the face” for having poorly surrendered their souls.  

Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasure of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.  When behaving charitably, optimally we should be prepared to provide the poorer the “better half” of the meal, maybe the whole meal.  If we are too attached to our own senses and satisfying our appetites for anything material, we lose sight of their true origin, in God, and how they should be best used.  Worst of all, we can become too attached to the world.   However, temperance is “tempered” by wisdom.  We should not be guilted into contributing $100 at high interest when sound leadership could accomplish the same or better for one-tenth the cost. 

The virtue of temperance also applies to the poor.  The people in foreign countries could have rejected the demands of USAID even though that entailed continuing deprivation.   The stories abound about the immigrants in New York who literally threw away food because it did not suit them.  How many Americans, even as I type these words, would have accepted the food even if it fell short of their desires?  As the song goes, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”  I will only add that I have encountered this contemporary attitude of exceptional expectation, if not ingratitude, from those in need that make the Great Depression poor look like extraordinary saints.    The new poor are often…not so “poor, ” as much as aggrieved at what they perceive to be owed them.  This sounds blunt, and I judge no one person of such, but the overall reality is discouraging.  

Most importantly, the principles of Catholic solidarity and subsidiarity, foundational for our human charitable efforts,  demand that charity regard both the individual recipient and the community, localized first.    Serving masses or groups of distant nationalities is fraught with potentiality for fraud, deceit, impersonal care, and manipulation.  Pope Francis decried Vice President Vance’s explanation of subsidiarity, but while Vance should have been more articulate, he did underscore the premise of how we are to share, in general.  I often tout the Society of St. Vincent de Paul that is comprised mainly of volunteers and receives its goods from generous parish communities.  Very little overhead, whereas with such operations as USAID, some employees have been exceedingly enriched.   We must admit that the further away the recipient population, the more likelihood that both the personal touch and fiscal impact are diminished.  

However, let us look again at USAID, also outed as a pronounced population control effort—i.e. pro contraception and abortion.

How does an enterprise like USAID reflect genuine charity if at all?  I would argue it is both a smoke screen for advancing a worldly agenda at best, and, at worst, one that is anti-Christian.  Furthermore, many unsavory hands are in the mix, as branches and subsidiaries of the umbrella group tend to confuse and complicate delivery of critical needs to persons. 

That the Church is and has been  intertwined with this agenda, especially through the USCCB, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief, and so forth, should dismay us.  I do interject that there are many wonderful employees in these endeavors, but the systemic institutions are tainted.  Furthermore, parishes and ministries are capable of caring for sister parishes across borders and oceans.  Yet, the Church and associated operations should never be compromised by politics or the world, in general.     

Going forward, all donations must be strictly aimed at the necessities of life and life giving efforts.  This can and does include those in distant countries.  Just ask the Secular Order of Servites and other sacrificially giving orders that also build relations with persons around the world.  It can be done, from our pockets to their tables, but mostly from our hearts to theirs.   

First, we must toss Judas’s money bags!

For a return to authentic charity, charity with integrity, they must be.