Catholic Relief Services President Speaks

Fordham and Catholic Relief Services celebrated their partnership with the first visit of new New York City Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan on April 22. A conference was held in which Dolan addressed the Fordham community about the history of the partnership and the current work of the group. Dolan is currently the chair of the CRS Board of Directors.

“I may have conflicting obligations, but I do not have conflicting loves, and two of them are very obvious this evening,” Dolan said. “The Church’s dedication to faith and reason, so beautifully exemplified by Father McShane here at Fordham, and the Church’s dedication to charity, that is so magnificently illustrated through the work of Catholic Relief Services.”

Dolan proceeded to comment that he was honored to be a part of the evening and by the fact that Fordham was hosting CRS.

“For this great University to host Catholic Relief Service proves that the Church has both a head and a heart,” he said.

Executive Vice President of CRS Michael Wiest, FCRH ’67, talked about the founding of the partnership between the group and Fordham. He addressed the school in his keynote address, “Faith, Justice and Solidarity in the 21st Century,” which told of how CRS aided European refugees after World War II and has assisted those in need all the way up to more recent events, such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“Rwanda was one of those countries that was a premier country for Catholic Relief Services,” Wiest said. “We knew that these hatreds existed between the Tutsi and the Hutu community, but we called that politics. That’s not what we were about. We were about socio-economic development.”

Wiest explained that the agency has focused over time on justice and made it their priority.

“We came to believe that man, by virtue of the fact that he was created in the image and likeness of God, is sacred, and that we achieve the fullness of our humanity in relationships with each other,” Wiest said.

Following Wiest, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Archbishop Celestino Migliore spoke and thanked CRS and Wiest for focusing their work on justice and human rights.