Italy: financial crisis, commitment of dioceses A review of the local Churches shows that Italian dioceses are taking steps to alleviate the difficulties of all those most affected by the current economic crisis and setting up projects to assist them. From North to South, the forms and times of intervention very greatly. At the national level, the episcopate, at the meeting of its Permanent Council in March, will define “in detail” the initiative that the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) will promote in support of families in difficulty. The project is explained in the final communiqué of the last meeting of the Council (Rome, 26-28 January). The initiative – approved in its basis lines – is aimed at “those families that are currently hovering on or below the subsistence threshold and risk adding to the number of paupers”. The President of the CEI, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, has also intervened on the financial crisis: “it has erupted – he said, recently speaking to bishops – due to speculations in the financial sector and the greed of those who seek the largest possible profit in the shortest possible time”. And he added: “the most painful effects of this crisis will especially be felt by the part of the population that has never gambled, and that even beforehand was suffering from chronic economic hardship”. In the light of this situation, the dioceses are mobilizing. Many have set up an “emergency solidarity fund for families”. These funds will complement the charitable activities that the dioceses daily perform through their hostels, shelters and provision of services of assistance and support. At Vicenza, for example, the Fund will be managed by the diocesan Caritas agency for an initial sum of 300,000 Euro allocated by the diocese thanks to the percentage (eight per thousand) devolved by the State to the Church from annual income tax returns. The project, which will become active by April, will provide aid up to a maximum 1,000 Euro per month for those who lose their jobs or find themselves in an exceptional situation of economic hardship. There are those dioceses – such as Cesena – that have established a “guarantee fund” that may permit the banks to grant aid to single-income families that due to the loss of a job are no longer able to offer the collateral required by the banks to receive loans. Many dioceses, moreover, have decided to finalize their Lenten collection this year to reinforce the services that already exist in the dioceses and that operate in support of those in grave hardship (such as hostels, night shelters for those without fixed address, assistance to prison inmates, and so on), individuals and families in need in parishes, or counselling and other centres for those in need of economic support. France: the bishops and the minister of ecology”A national responsibility with an evident planetary dimension”: that’s how Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, defined the commitment for the protection of the environment at a meeting held at the headquarters of the French Bishops’ Conference in Paris in recent days. Apart from various bishops, the participants included Jean-Louis Borloo, minister in the Sarkozy government who holds the portfolio for ecology, energy, sustainable development and territorial planning. According to Borloo, “if we don’t all pull together to gain an awareness of what’s at stake, the very fate of man will be jeopardized in the years ahead”. The objective of the meeting, explained Archbishop Jean-Charles Descubes of Rouen, chairman of the Council for the Family and Society, was to “assess how the Church can unite her own voice in the defence of the environment” in view of the UN Summit on climate change scheduled to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009. This is “an important challenge”, emphasized Cardinal Barbarin, while Barloo said he feared that “selfish reactions” and “score-settling between rich and poor” would prevail at this summit. “This international event – observed the minister – could be the beginning of the third world war, or the greatest accord ever seen on the planet”. As for what he expected from the Church, Barloo declared: “I have the impression I don’t understanding you”, and yet at the same time he recalled the ecumenical initiatives and the commitment of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI to the safeguard of the Creation. “We are ready to act because we know that God’s first act of love was the creation of the world – replied Cardinal Barbarin -. This dogma is the first, all the others come later. The Christian position is rooted in it”. In the view of Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry-Corbennes, “with this reflection on the creation we will perhaps be able to give a positive sense to the ecological question, far transcending all fear. A civilization founded on fear fills me with dread”, he concluded, “whereas the realization that we ourselves are the stewards of creation opens us to something positive”.
