Helping the Catholic Church and also the Orthodox Church, as indeed all people in need – that is the aim pursued by the Order of the Knights of Malta which has been working in Bulgaria for two years. During this period the Knights have furnished medical equipment and supplies to three Bulgarian hospitals linked to the Catholic Church, while an ambulance has been donated to the hospital for pulmonary diseases in the city of Iskretz in the north-west region of Vratza. During the floods in 2005 the Order of Malta also made large donations of foodstuffs and clothing especially to the orphanages that have at times been reduced to terrible conditions in Bulgaria. Future activities planned by the Order include training programmes for charitable aid with the aim of helping the local population to practice mutual solidarity. “This is very important – explains Sister Massimiliana Projkova, coordinator of the John Paul II Day Hospital in Sofia, which has received medical equipment from the Order – because the Bulgarians when they see foreigners helping our compatriots in need ask themselves: why can’t do so ourselves?” “So – adds Sister Massimiliana – apart from material and moral support, the intervention of the Order also becomes a stimulus for Bulgarian citizens. We Catholics in Bulgaria – she continues – are a small community and we would greatly like to begin to conduct serious charitable activities in the country which has a need for them, also to be a Church that is close to the poor. That’s also because to a sick person or a beggar you can speak of God but he’ll tell you: words are all very well, but it’s something to eat I need”. The arrival of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Bulgaria is positive also from the viewpoint of correcting misconceptions about it and clarifying the history of the Crusades. “There is no doubt that the Order of the Knights of Malta – said Camillo Zuccoli, the Order’s new ambassador in Sofia – will continue to help this country which in the space of a few years has made huge strides in the field of reforms and adjustment to the EU. I am fully convinced that Bulgaria fully deserves its entry into Europe and that the Bulgarian people has suffered greatly to ensure that this membership becomes a reality”.
