Against prejudice

They number some 300,000 and are divided into four groups, Irish Travellers, English Travellers, New Travellers (hippies) and Romani Gypsies. This is the nomad population of the UK, which, with the problems caused by its nomadic lifestyle and the prejudices against it generated in ordinary people, represents a particular pastoral challenge for the Catholic Church in the country. For forty years, until 2002, the Church was able to provide gypsies – many of them Catholics and deeply religious – with a full-time chaplain, but with the death of Father Elton Daly, a Franciscan of Oxford who devoted his whole life to the problems of nomads, this role has remained vacant. Today a network of some forty pastoral workers, eight sisters, seven priests and a score of laity, tries to reach out to nomad camps in twelve dioceses to provide them with preparation for the Sacraments. They are supported and coordinated by Richard Zipfel, consultor of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for the problems of nomads, and by Father JOE BROWNE, delegate of the Irish Bishops’ Conference for the problems of Irish travellers, who for the time being performs the role formerly played by Father Daly. We asked him to explain what are the main challenges gypsies pose to the Church. What prejudices exist about gypsies and nomads and what impact do they have on your work? “As in Europe as a whole, in Great Britain too people tend to see gypsies as criminals because they move about so often. But this is a prejudice, because the crime rate in the nomad population is no higher than in the rest of the population and gypsies are used as scapegoats for many criminal practices. The Church must strive to remove these prejudices”. How much success does your pastoral work have? “I’m a full-time chaplain to gypsies and nomads. I visit campsites and organize courses of preparation for the most important Sacraments, marriage, confession, communion and confirmation. I also strive to ensure greater social justice for this population of disadvantaged people. With the growth in the construction of new homes in the UK, the ground available for campsites is being reduced and gypsies are forced into smaller accommodation units where the extended family is lost. For their culture, founded on the extended family, this is a revolutionary change that is not easy for them to come to terms with. I also campaign to ensure they have better access to the health service and to schools. Since they don’t have a fixed address, because they move about so often, gypsies don’t have a GP and schools for their children. A new challenge for the Catholic Church is also the arrival of large numbers of Romanian gypsies from Poland and Romania, who don’t speak English and thus have even greater difficulties in gaining access to healthcare and education”. Is the spirituality of nomads and gypsies different from that of the rest of the population in the UK? “Nomads and gypsies have a spirituality of more traditional type than that of the rest of the Catholic population in the UK. I try to explain to the parish priests with whom I work and parishioners that, in trying to forge contacts with nomads, they have to do with a Catholicism that predates Vatican Council II. Nomads, for example, are used to baptize their children within a week of birth, while in the UK it is by now normal practice to wait until children are two or three years old before baptizing them. Catholic gypsies have an image of God linked to the Old Testament, an omnipotent God who controls everything but who does not easily forgive. They are attached to such traditions as novenas and pilgrimages; they adore going to the sanctuary of Knock in Ireland, to Lourdes and to Fatima. There is also the problem of illiteracy, which is widespread and which makes it difficult for them to gain access to the Word of God”. What form does your work take? “We try to profit from pilgrimages and courses of preparation for the various Sacraments to communicate the Gospel to nomads and gypsies. Due to their erratic lifestyle, nomads find it difficult to go to church with any regularity and often both they and their children are looked at askance if they do so. They are socially marginalized and excluded people in Great Britain, and very few are able to help them or represent them. Part of my work is just that of campaigning on their behalf, working together with the various charities and also through the official channels to encourage them to do more to help nomads”. The English bishops are trying to find a new chaplain for nomads… “The new chaplain will have the role of supporting those who already work with gypsies and nomads and will work for their evangelization and re-evangelization”.