The president of international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Father Joaquín Alliende, has been appointed as a member of the pontifical council Cor Unum by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Cor Unum, established in 1971 by Pope Paul VI, is a pontifical council that supports and coordinates Catholic charitable work.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Father Joaquín Alliende is a priest of the secular Institute of the Schönstatt Fathers. Since October 2008, he has also been the international president of ACN, the Catholic pastoral charity founded in 1947 by the legendary “Bacon Priest,” the Dutch Norbertine religious, Father Werenfried van Straaten. ACN is officially recognized as a universal public association of pontifical right that is directly answerable to the Vatican’s clergy congregation in its work for the pastoral support of the Catholic Church in some 140 countries worldwide.
As a recognized theological expert, Father Alliende was involved both actively and in an advisory capacity in the last three General Assemblies of the Latin American bishops’ council, CELAM, held in Puebla, Mexico in 1979, in Santo Domingo in 1992 and in the Brazilian city of Aparecida in 2007. He also participated in the World Council of Churches in Geneva and is a member of numerous theological commissions in various different countries.
Father Alliende has been involved with ACN and its work since the 1960s, and since 1978 he has been a member of the charity’s general council as an advisor on theological issues. From 1999 to 2008 he was ACN’s international ecclesiastical assistant. His particular interest as president of ACN is the promotion of interreligious dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church, a cause in which ACN has been particularly active, with the express encouragement of both the last two Popes. Recently, Father Alliende met with the new Patriarch of Moscow, Patriarch Kirill.
