England: aid to victims of the economic crisis The Catholic Church of England and Wales opened a website for all those hit by the economic crisis who are coping with a future of uncertainties due to the lack of money. The new portal, www.life4seekers.co.uk/uncertainty, offers visitors an mp3 downloadable meditation, a space for reflection, stories of people who experienced economic difficulties, “suggestions on how to win through” and a place where they can share their problems and give thanks for the help they received. An important part of the new resource developed by “Case”, the evangelization agency of the English Church, is an area devoted to prayer where it is possible to find “a Prayer for uncertainty”, a “Prayer for the family” and a “Prayer to our Guardian Angel” that encourage to seek the help of the Patron Saint of financial questions Saint Mathew. “While we all need money to live”, we were told by the Episcopal Conference, “we read in the Gospels that after having met Jesus, Mathew abandoned his money-based life after he saw the long-lasting Treasure of the message and the person of Christ”. “We wanted to give a resource that would provide support, consolation and practical help to those in dire straits”, explained Msgr. Andrew Faley, assistant secretary general of the Bishops’ Conference. The new website provides a series of links with Catholic organizations that can provide concrete help to all those people undergoing economic difficulties. Italy: the Church in support of families in difficult financial situations The Permanent Council of Italian bishops, held in Rome January 26-28 announced the “Promotion of a national initiative in support of all those families on the threshold of subsistence, who risk engrossing the number of poor people”. The decision is aimed at providing concrete help to families who are facing the economic crisis. Thus, the bishops stated in a communiqué, the Church wishes to “reaffirm the priority of the family”, which “is not a burden but an economic subject, it is not a terminal but a ‘reservoir’ leading to emergence from the crisis and joint progress”. The financial crisis “affects individuals, families and communities alike – remarked His Eminence Cardinal President Angelo Bagnasco in his opening remarks -. Precarious jobs are all the more unstable today, and with their sudden loss individuals are left with no means of subsistence”. March’s session of the permanent Council will be tasked with “finalizing the project’s details, that has been approved in its fundamental lines”, the bishops said. “Although charitable interventions promoted by the Church are an inalienable token to those in dire need of help – the bishops point out – these should not be understood as a solution to this problem with vast proportions nor as an interference with its responsibilities. Rather these should be understood as an expression of solidarity”. “The activity of diocesan Caritas will be intensified starting this very moment, along with the volunteer work of the many parishes that are daily called to respond to the needs of those living in dire straits”. Ireland: prison chaplains, stop to the new prisons The national coordinator of the chaplains of Irish prisons voiced his opposition to “the project of building a new prison in Dublin and of enlarging prisons throughout the country”. In referring to United States’ and Great Britain’s massive prisons buildings sister Imelda Wickham declared, “in the United Kingdom we realize this is not the road leading to the future. As chaplains walking inside the prisons we feel that we ought to speak the truth. A prison such as that of Thornton Hall in Dublin planned to detain 1400 prisoners is the symptom of a failed system.” The twenty-one full-time and the five part-time chaplains working in Irish prisons asked that the new Thornton Hall building be postponed in order to enable oral debate regarding appropriate detention centres. The chaplains also called for the erection of smaller detention centers conceived for prisoner rehabilitation. Sister Imelda Wickham referred to two Irish prisons: “Take the small prison of Arbour Hill. Everyone knows each other and the atmosphere is calm and peaceful. While prisons like Mountjoy are overcrowded to the extent that it’s normal for five people to be closed in cells for twenty-three hours running”. The chaplains declared that some categories of people should be enabled to get out of prison, such as those who failed to pay their fines or debts and those suffering from mental diseases.
