Empty charity.

One of the legacies of the latest G8 summit was a very public fingerpointing at Canada for failing to open her wallet as wide as promised.

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made a poor entrance at the Group of Eight summit this year," a Taronto Star editorial scolded. "Apart from confirming that Canada doesn't intend to meet our Kyoto targets on climate change, he has dealt our international image a second blow by disclosing that we plan to renege on a $700 million aid pledge to poverty-stricken Africa."

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

So did Bono when G8 leaders promised $60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis which have devastated African countries and their economies.

"I am exasperated," said the Irish rock star and anti-poverty campaigner of the declaration which did not itemize individual countries' contributions or indicate how much of that sum had been previously promised. It also lacked a timetable, saying the money would flow "over the coming years."

"I think it is deliberately the language of obfuscation. It is deliberately misleading," he said.

Two years ago, former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin promised in the federal budget to double Canadian aid to Africa from $1.4-billion to $2.8-billion by 2008-2009. Later that year, at the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, he promised to double African aid to just $2.1-billion, "saving" Canadians $700-million.

Canadians can be forgiven for feeling resentment over where their tax dollars go, given the fact that, for all the money poured into Africa, there appears to be precious little in the way of positive results: AIDS still plagues the entire continent, Robert Mugabe still brutalizes Zimbabwe, Somalia is a lawless no man's land, South Africa is disintegrating into criminal anarchy, and the ongoing genocide in Darfur continues apace.

Only a materialistic chump would put his faith in money as the solution to such staggering problems which, at their heart, are spiritual.

Yet elites such as Paul Martin, who keep parts of their fortunes offshore away from the taxman, insist on squandering other people's money to appear compassionate. What a Vanity Fair!

The truth is there is a fundamental problem with government aid bestowed for humanitarian (read: secular) reasons.

It's this: It impersonates Christianity but is without Christ. It is charity without its real power. In or of itself, such institutionalised "aid" involves almost no personal sacrifice, no direct loving of one's neighbour. As easy, impersonal and detached "caring" from a distance, no human contact is required.

Which may be the reason why it appears to be doing so little good for those suffering horribly in that vast, afflicted continent.

To me, the confirmation of this came in the story of the successful fight against AIDS in Uganda by implementing a very un-UN policy of sexual abstinence. Predictably, this effective and spiritually sound policy was attacked by activists who cannot tolerate any Christian principle whatsoever.

Pope Benedict XVI said it best recently when he pointed out that charity, both for individuals and for organizations, must always find its reference point in Christ, "the source of charity." Otherwise, it will be deficient.

This theological vision has practical implications for the work of charitable organizations as well, his Holiness said.

"The first is that every act of charity should be inspired by a personal experience of faith, leading to the discovery that God is Love. Christian charity exceeds our natural capacity for love: It is a theological virtue.

"It therefore challenges the giver to situate humanitarian assistance in the context of a personal witness of faith, which then becomes a part of the gift offered to the poor. Only when charitable activity takes the form of Christ-like self-giving does it become a gesture truly worthy of the human person created in God's image and likeness."

In other words, when it comes to giving real help to real people wherever they live, the milk of human kindness is wholly inadequate.

Without the love of God at the core of politically-driven largesse, material assistance cannot generate the good that is intended.

Oh yes, the money may arrive, but much of it will find its way into corrupt coffers. Missionaries will continue to depend on the Lord's bounty, as Mother Teresa did, and the poor will continue to suffer. Why? Because man does not and cannot live on bread alone. Because the poor, who are all of us, need God first, Whom no amount of money can supplant.

Which is why Jesus directed his apostles and their descendants to go forth and teach the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, to all nations.

Nothing else and nothing less can accomplish the salvation of Africa ... or any other continent on this planet.

Paula Adamick is a professional journalist. She writes from London, England, where she publishes the monthly Canada Post.