Open heart

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The Offenes Herz aid organization ( English : Heart's Home ; Spanish : Punto Corazón ; French : Points Cœur ; Italian : Punto Cuore ) is an international association of believers in the Roman Catholic Church . The charity sends volunteers to slums to comfort the suffering and especially the children and advocate a culture of compassion . The association was founded in France in 1990 and recognized by canon law in 2000 . In 2018, the aid organization was present in 26 countries worldwide with 188 volunteers. The organization has consultative status to the concerns of human rights at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations .

history

The foundation day of the aid organization is January 4th 1990, on this day Father Thierry de Roucy (* 1957) put the idea of ​​founding a new aid organization into practice. His idea was to place street children in groups of four to five young people in cities and look after them. The first two houses, which were named “Points-Cœur” in 1990, were built in Brazil and Argentina and were run by eleven volunteers. Between 1992 and 1999 a further 24 houses were built in 15 countries and in 1997 the first house was opened in France . In 1999 there were 150 volunteers from 15 countries in 20 countries. In 1990 the association of believers was recognized under canon law by Estanislao Esteban Karlic , Archbishop of Paraná , and in 2000 the association received the recognition decree from the Pontifical Council for the Laity .

Other institutions with outstanding status are the universities in Lviv ( Ukraine ) and São Paulo (Brazil), and in 2007 the inauguration of an International Center for a “Culture of Compassion” (ICCC) in Woodbourne (New York) ( United States) ). Between 2009 and 2012 houses were founded in Chile , Germany , Austria and the USA.

Organization and expansion

The relief organization maintains a total of 17 Points-Cœur houses, 2 reception villages, 7 Points-Cœur houses for students and workers and 6 houses for the preparation and training of volunteers and members worldwide . The “ motherhouse ” in Vieux Moulin (France) was opened in 1996 and is at the same time a place of training and meeting. The international “Herzpunkt” includes a total of around 290 members who live in different ways of life. This includes 175 volunteers and 40 consecrated lay people .

Self-image

“It's about answering a scream, the scream of men and women who lack a friend.” With this motto , the community wants to bring compassion and consolation into the world and take responsibility for lonely and suffering young people and children take over. The teaching is based on three pillars: the life of prayer , the community life and apostolic activity.

literature

Individual references / comments

  1. ↑ Heart's Home USA [1]
  2. ^ Punto Corazón Argentina [2]
  3. ↑ Points Cœur France [3]
  4. ^ Punto Cuore Italia [4]
  5. ↑ http://france.pointscoeur.org : Presentation. Retrieved March 9, 2019 (fr-fr).
  6. ↑ The term compassion is understood as “compassion” and also as “compassion”.
  7. ↑ http://france.pointscoeur.org : Histoire. Retrieved March 9, 2019 (fr-fr).
  8. ↑ Points-Coeur en quelques chiffres. In: Terre de Compassion. January 4, 2018, accessed on March 9, 2019 (fr-fr).
  9. ↑ http://france.pointscoeur.org : Histoire. Retrieved March 9, 2019 (fr-fr).
  10. ↑ "We need a culture of compassion", in: ethik heute - magazine for mindful living, HH the Dalai Lama , 2013 [5] , accessed on February 26, 2015
  11. ↑ This would be the literal translation into German
  12. ↑ This is a flexible number due to the fluctuation of the volunteers (one or two years). More than 1,300 volunteers have been on duty since 1990

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