Caritas Germany was founded in 1897 by Prelate Lorenz Werthmann, and it is organised efficiently via the dioceses. Even though Caritas has 499,313 full-time staff members, the organisation represents only part of the Church's involvement in welfare work. It is estimated that approximately one million Catholics do unpaid work in parishes and Catholic associations, in the form of charity work and care for the sick and disabled, the elderly, the socially disadvantaged, disadvantaged children and young addicts, as well as foreigners, asylum seekers and their families.
The system of social security and social assistance in Germany is characterised by an interplay between independent and state agencies. This reflects the view that welfare work is the responsibility both of the state and of independent groups in society. In line with the principle of subsidiarity as developed in Catholic welfare doctrine – according to which the state should only act when groups in society are unable (or no longer able) to help – the state gives priority to independent welfare organisations. In the course of time, 60 per cent of kindergarten places in Germany, 67 per cent of places in old people's homes and 36 per cent of hospital beds have come to be provided by non-governmental welfare agencies.
Caritas Germany, the Catholic Church's welfare association, runs more than 25,400 institutions such as kindergartens, hospitals, homes for the young, the elderly and those at risk of addiction, social service units and advice centres, with almost 1.2 million places. In the field of health care, Caritas has more than 650 hospitals and almost 1,000 social service units; for the disabled, there are some 700 rehabilitation centres and homes offering care, as well as over 700 day centres and schools for disabled children and adolescents; there are more than 620 homes for young people and more than 9,800 kindergartens and day nurseries and 230 centres offering advice on bringing up children; to help the family, the organisation provides almost 50 family holiday centres, 148 family care units, over 280 marriage guidance centres and over 250 advice centres for pregnant women in problem situations; and in the field of care for the elderly, there are just under 1,780 old people's homes and almost 550 day centres.
There are almost 600 specific advice centres for refugees and ethnic Germans from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Foreign workers and their families can take advantage of more than 250 welfare advice centres and almost 80 cultural and leisure centres. To help people in severe need, Caritas Germany provides 320 advice centres for addicts, more than 1,500 self-help groups, more than 100 facilities offering assistance to homeless singles or more than 260 debt advice centres.
In order to ensure that new personnel can continue to be recruited, Caritas has set up a network of initial and further training schools for welfare occupations; these include over 600 technical schools and 8 technical colleges.
For this work alone, the central Caritas office in Freiburg needs an annual budget of about Euro 20 million. It is almost impossible to calculate the financial commitment of the Caritas institutions in the dioceses, the charity orders and the Catholic associations engaged in welfare work. Depending on the type of institution and assistance, government grants range between 20 and almost 100 per cent. This itself demonstrates the high level of personal and financial commitment made by the Catholic Church to promote the welfare of the German society.
Calculations based on reliable data suggest that the work done by the Catholic Church to maintain and invest in the facilities and to train staff, as well as the unpaid work done by volunteers, saves the state more than Euro 5 billion a year.
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