Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Case Study of the Catholic Church

Abstract

The Catholic and Protestant churches have a long history of working in development, especially in education, welfare, healthcare and indeed in challenging dictatorial regimes (De Kadt, 2009). The Vatican II Council held between 1962 and 1965¹ expressed the need for the Catholic Church to go beyond its traditional roles of providing education and healthcare especially in the less privileged parts of the world (Charles and Maclaren, 1982; Himes, 2004: 53–56). The Council foresaw clearly the need for organisational structures within the Catholic Church and appropriately trained personnel to be engaged in such tasks². As a result of this mission, the Church recognised a need to work with governments but the exact nature of that role was not clearly articulated in the mid-1960s.