New Caritas president has tall order to fill

Caritas’s new president, Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, has a tall order to fill, as he is taking over for someone still seen as deeply popular, but whose internal mess he will have to clean up.

May 26, 2023

By Elise Ann Allen
Caritas’s new president, Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, has a tall order to fill, as he is taking over for someone still seen as deeply popular, but whose internal mess he will have to clean up.

Kikuchi was elected on May 13 during Caritas’s general assembly, May 11-16 in Rome, and has extensive experience within the Caritas organisation and with missionary work. He will serve as president of Caritas for the next four years.

He began working with Caritas in 1995 as a volunteer at a refugee camp in Bukavu, Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. He served as executive director of Caritas Japan from 1994-2004, and as president of Caritas Japan from 2007-2022.

Kikuchi was also president of Caritas Asia from 2011-2019 and was a member of the Caritas International Executive Committee from 1999-2004, and a member of the Representative Council from 2011-2019, meaning he brings a wealth of experience with him to his new role.

Archbishop of Tokyo since 2017, Kikuchi was sent as a missionary to Ghana immediately after his priestly ordination, where he served in a rural parish for eight years, meaning he also has vast experience with the remote communities Caritas often serves.

In an interview with Vatican News, the Vatican’s state-run information platform, after his election, Kikuchi noted that Caritas is one of the world’s largest NGOs but insisted that “we are much more than that.” “We are a Catholic Church organisation, and the institute of the service of the Church. So, that means that Caritas is supposed to be a witness of the love of God.

What we do is not only provide food or materials or any kind of assistance but rather, we want to be witnesses of the love of God, to show people that this is how God loves all people,” he said.

Kikuchi offered a message to Caritas staff and volunteers, saying their primary task is to be “a witness of the love of God” to everyone they meet, whether they are working in administration, or in the field.

Volunteers at the local level represent Caritas in a special way, he said, saying “it is very important for each one of these volunteers to bear the characteristics of Caritas. They are Caritas. Those of us who are in administration, we are not Caritas alone. We, together with all these volunteers, we create Caritas.” -- Crux Now