Our Activities
The Foundation has four different areas of activities:
1. To commission reports on topics deemed by the Foundation as crucial to the ongoing international debate. Selected each year by the Board of the Foundation, they are also intended to be relevant to current international events and forthcoming activities at the UN.
- Topics relevant to international politics and in line with the agenda of the UN.
- Capacity to pre-empt future dialogue.
- Capacity to propose solutions.
- Implementation and coordination of seminars.
- Distribution of reports through the Caritas in Veritate Working Papers.
2. To plan and deliver 'side events' at the UN at the request of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See, in order to give visibility and relevance to key topics at the UN.
- Gives the opportunity to develop the understanding of the Catholic position on specific topics.
- Gives the Catholic Church the possibility of bringing to Geneva world class experts to present or explain our position.
- Ensure a wider coverage of the positions taken by the Catholic Church.
3. To provide high quality expertises on specific topics under review at the UN.
- Proximity to the needs of the Holy See Mission at the UN.
- A trusted network of highly qualified institutions and professionals
- A functioning network of associates, able to deliver an expert report or analysis in a timely fashion.
4. To build capacity at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See through the coordination of the 'intern programme' and fundraising activities.
- A vibrant intern programme, aimed at the formation of committed young Catholics who support the day to day work of the Mission and are supported to give witness to Christ in the public sphere.
- A network of private donors and partners, committed to financially supporting the work of the Foundation.
Our Principles
With full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, the work of the Foundation is premised on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, notably:
The dignity of the human person, free and responsible.
The value of human life, a firm commitment to protect all human life from conception to natural death.
The family as the centre and source of social life, the first and vital cell of society.
Solidarity which binds all human beings together and makes us responsible to one another.
The common good, based on a just international order, as the purpose driving all political and economic activity.
Subsidiarity which ensures the common good at all levels of society.
A preferential option for the poor and the marginalised.
The value of human labour rooted in the fulfilment of the worker as a person.
The universal destination of goods and private property, the neccesary balance between private property and the universal destination of good.
Care for our common home....