SERVICES
Caritas Leeds 
Caritas Leeds will provide a practical resource both supporting and enabling social action initiatives across the Diocese to be safe and to follow good practice.
Jesus gave us two great commandments:
- To love God
- To love our neighbour
Today, Christians around the world show this love through all kinds of practical works of charity.
In 2023 Bishop Marcus designated the Charity Catholic Care as Caritas Leeds. This means that Catholic Care, in addition to engaging in charitable works itself , also supports other diocesan groups in their social action.
As Caritas Leeds, Catholic Care will support, enhance and, when deemed appropriate, coordinate – not replace or take over – the various charitable projects already being done by many Catholic groups and parish projects in the Diocese, and also enable new initiatives to flourish. Caritas Leeds will provide capacity building to promote the development of volunteer led initiatives across the Diocese.
Sharing the love of God. Caritas is the Latin word for love.
Practical resources
Parishes, groups and charities will still run their own initiatives and have complete responsibility for them. Those that want to be part of Caritas Leeds , and we hope all of them will, will be invited to sign up to a Code of Mutual Understanding and Good Practice and become members of Caritas Leeds.
As a member you will be entitled to use the Caritas branding, which is recognised world wide as a sign of the Church’s loving care.
A Toolkit is now available, giving you ideas of initiatives you can run in your parish and advice on how to do this. For those groups who complete all the necessary requirements, they will become members of Caritas Leeds thereby bringing a sense of identity and a feeling of belonging to the Diocese of Leeds.
The toolkit helpfully includes the following sections:
- Building relationships with your Parish
- Finding out what is already going on for people here and now.
- Discerning opportunities to build on what is already available
- Getting new activities going
- Examples of activities already taking place
- How to gain Caritas Leeds Accreditation
- Examples of volunteer role descriptions
- Volunteer application forms and reference template
- Examples of publicity material.
Forthcoming events
March – April 2025: Catholic Social Teaching Course
CSAN (Caritas Social Action Network) is an agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales charged with encouraging social action, and Catholic Care Caritas Leeds is a member.
20 September 2025: Jubilee for Justice
CSAN is organising a large-scale event taking place in Liverpool. Details to follow.
18 October 2025: Caritas Leeds Day of Reflection & Action
Building on the success of our first Day of Reflection & Action in September 2024, this event will be held at Hinsley Hall in Headingley, Leeds. Timetable and details to be confirmed closer to the event.
CSAN is offering a new online course on Catholic Social Teaching. The course is entitled, Catholic Social Teaching: an introduction and will be spread over five one-hour Zoom sessions on each Tuesday in Spring 2025, from 12 noon to 1pm on 04, 11, 18, 25 March, and 01 April.
The course is aimed at parishioners and anyone not so familiar with Catholic Social Teaching, or who would welcome a refresh. The course will be grounded in the reality of CSAN members and their work on the front line of poverty and exclusion, with inputs from member organisations.
The course fee is £95, which includes a copy of Raymond Friel’s book, Catholic Social Teaching: an introduction for schools, parishes and charities. Please let CSAN have a postal address to send the book to before the course starts. To ensure you receive the book before the course starts, please register by 12 noon on Friday 14 February 2025.
Before each session, participants will be invited to read two chapters of Raymond’s book. Each session will have a teaching input from Raymond, followed by interactive discussion in break-out rooms to check learning and help with any question. In each session, there will be a ‘spotlight’ presentation from a CSAN member charity, making links between their work and Catholic Social Teaching.
On completion of the course each participant will receive a certificate of completion.
To register, please visit CSAN’s Eventbrite page.
For more information, please contact Bernadette Durcan.