This year’s Charity Day, which has been celebrated annually for a number of years by the Church in Malta, will take place tomorrow with the theme “Let’s follow with love in the way of the Lord” (Nimxu bl-imhabba fit-triq tal-Mulej).

The Church Secretariat for Social and Charitable Action (Caritas Malta), which is responsible for organising this celebration, was set up in 1977 with the aim of coordinating and promoting activities for the welfare of senior citizens, the sick, drug addicts, people with disabilities, and others with special needs.

An important objective of Charity Day – one of a series of events during Charity Week – is to call on the generous financial support of the people for the numerous initiatives by Caritas, since funds are badly needed. But the overriding purpose of this annual event is to spread the message of Christ, “the Gospel of Christian love” and to arouse in Maltese Catholics a genuine interest in the work being carried out by members of our community to improve the temporal and spiritual welfare of the underprivileged.

Caritas, side by side with the state agencies and in full cooperation with them, has the mammoth task of coping with the big humanitarian problems that surface in our society. A whole army of volunteers, under the comforting umbrella of Caritas, are engaged in an unrelenting battle to alleviate the untold suffering caused by all forms of poverty, including the mental and physical disabilities which afflict sections of our people.

All Maltese Catholics can help them, and play a part in ensuring that projects aiming to diminish poverty and suffering are successful, by heeding Caritas’ appeal to support and patronise its charitable and social activities.

As Christians, followers of Christ, we have a duty to imitate our Divine Master by having a special love for our needy and suffering neighbours. We must be fully aware of our responsibility to practise solidarity – the virtue of social charity and friendship – by sharing our material as well as our spiritual goods with those in need of them.

Catholics should not turn a blind eye to the warning given by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Deus est Caritas (n. 28), which read: “There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable.”

So please give as much as you can afford. And make your presence felt to ensure the events are a success.

Mgr Nicholas J. Cauchi is Bishop Emeritus of Gozo