The new president of Caritas Internationalis is Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo. The appointment was made on the evening of May 13th and marks the beginning of a series of elections that will shape the future of Caritas Internationalis. Archbishop Kikuchi replaces Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, unfortunately, affected by the takeover of Caritas mandated by Pope Francis on November 22nd, 2022.

Archbishop Kikuchi was one of the candidates for the presidency from the beginning. The other candidates were Cardinal Soane Patita Patita Paini Mafi, Archbishop of Tonga; Archbishop Joseph Soueif, Maronite Archeparch of Tripoli (Lebanon); and Monsignor Gabriel Hatti, President of the Middle East and Africa Office.

Speaking before the voting to the 400 delegates participating in the plenary of Caritas Internationalis, Archbishop Kikuchi emphasized that “Caritas must be at the forefront of welcoming, accompanying, serving, and defending the poor and vulnerable. This mission must be supported and kept at the center of attention by the members of the Confederation. I want to lead the entire organization, together with the Secretary-General, in fulfilling this important mission of the Church. We are all invited to walk together.”

Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi was born on November 1st, 1958, in Iwate. He professed his faith in the Society of the Divine Word in March 1985, before his priestly ordination on March 15th, 1986. As a young, newly ordained priest, he served as a missionary in Ghana, Africa, where he was a parish priest in a rural area for eight years. Before he was appointed Archbishop of Tokyo in 2017, he served as Bishop of Niigata from 2004.

Kikuchi is currently the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan and the Secretary General of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. Since 1995, he has been involved in various activities in Caritas. He volunteered in the Bukavu refugee camp in Zaire in the mid-1990s. He served as the Executive Director of Caritas Japan from 1999 to 2004 and as the President of Caritas Japan from 2007 to 2022.

Archbishop Kikuchi served as the President of Caritas Asia from 2011 to 2019. From 1999 to 2004, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Caritas Internationalis and a member of the Representative Council of the Confederation from 2011 to 2019.

In the coming days, the new Secretary General and Treasurer will be appointed, thus ending the period of administration that characterized this crisis of Caritas, which is also called to review its statutes. Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, spoke to the assembly, explaining the situation and describing it as necessary to address some internal issues. However, he maintained confidentiality regarding the gathered information and used a sort of apologetic narrative to justify the decisions taken without going into detail about them.

During the assembly, Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Vatican Minister for Relations with States, also addressed the delegates. 

This article was originally published on ACI Stampa.