The Social Welfare Services of the Diocese of Macau in the 20th Century: The Macau Cooperation Model of Social Welfare Work

Social Welfare Works was brought to Macau by European missionaries in the mid-sixteen centuries, and it started to form the way that how the city's social welfare works will go and what to offer. They not only brought the concept to Macau, but also brought in lots of resources to the city. As time goes by, even the economy has a dramatic change; the GDP of the city reaches its highest position in history1; people in this city still need different kinds of social welfare services.
The Catholic Church was one of the most active participants in the social welfare network in Macau, and its social works has the following characters:
 Respect for human dignity and elongation of justice to the society.
 Their social welfare works has comprehensive coverage and in-depth services
 Works changes according to social’s development
With the above characteristics, the Diocese of Macau has formed a popular social welfare network by its subsidiary parties and organizations which cover all kinds of services and levels of people in Macau. The relationship between the Diocese and the Macau government also plays an essential part in this network. How was their position and cooperation relationship in this society a key index or message to the community? No matter what the social situation will be, the responsibility for the Catholic Church to provide social welfare will not stop. It will continue to listen to its people and respond immediately. Their spiritual beliefs drove their services' directions.
On the other hand, the primary duty for the missionaries is for spreading the Gospel, not being social workers themselves. The Diocese subsidiary not only performs the
welfare works professionally, but also needs to follow their spiritual beliefs. Currently, the Caritas Macau is responsible for the majority of the Diocese Social Welfare works, its position in the society as a Catholic provider and how to balance the general and catholic social needs will be their challenges in this stage.
Reviewing the history of Macau Diocese, through its continuous services and dialogue between the society and the Government, it has formed a social welfare service cooperation structure in Macau. This cooperation includes requesting resources and assistance from the Government and, on the other hand, following the Government's plan for new services, it can be called a kind of cooperation model.
The model itself may be a result of historical development, but most important is still useful nowadays laws. The Government used this experience as a model to modify regulations and issued law in the 1990s for assisting all kinds of providers in Macau. Nowadays, the model is also a platform to provide a way to share the city's resources and let the Government lead different parties to full-fill the city's social welfare goals.