The poor are knocking on Churches’

Sadly, increasing numbers of people come knocking on the doors of the churches in Europe. Men, women, old and young people turn to the parishes asking for a job, a house, often just for food. Many people need help to look after their health, because when you are poor and have lost everything, there is no more money to buy medicines. These are the faces of poverty in Europe. The condition of the poor are known not through marketing surveys but by the priests, bishops dedicated fully to providing a helping hand. There are no statistics and trend curves but stories of life, grief and hope. Bishops and delegates responsible for the charitable activity of the Churches in Europe addressed these themes during a meeting (Trieste, Italy, 4-6 November), organized by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) and by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. The title of the meeting: “Witnessing to the faith through charity”. A widespread tragic problem. The appointment is in the soup kitchen, where the European bishops were invited to lunch. A large building in the San Giacomo neighborhood in Trieste, donated by a wealthy lady, for the past 10 years has served as Caritas soup kitchen and shelter for the homeless. The soup kitchen is open every day of the year for lunch and dinner providing about 90 meals a day. Half of its users are foreigners, but the other half are people from Trieste. In the city it is increasingly difficult to find a jon and the effect of the crisis is seen especially on evictions. The presence of the Church in Trieste in helping the poor is widespread. It provides hospitality to families, to single women with children, refugees, along with a convenience store in via Chiodino where about 200 families (serving an overall number of 900 people) are given food and basic necessities, often also clothing. “The faces of poverty in Europe – said Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, Archbishop of Trieste and president of Caritas in Veritate CCEE Commission – are many and dramatic, marked by pain and deprivation. There emerges an increasing divide that worsens due to inequality between Eastern and Western Europe. Diverging trends are recorded also at national level between people who are doing well and people that are falling into the chasm of marginalization. The causes are many: the most obvious one is the result of the social and economic crisis”. Immigration waves from Portugal. The faces of the poor in Portugal – said Monsignor Manuel Rodrigues da Silva Linda, auxiliary bishop of Braga – are mostly those of the unemployed. They are many: more or less 18% of the overall population and 45% of young graduates. Incomes have plummeted and people can’t afford to pay their rents and mortgages, and often end up living on the street. “People – says the auxiliary bishop – come to us for help because for many of them the Church remains the only point of reference” and because the parishes have set up soup kitchens and shelter facilities. “Often poverty is worsened by desperation, and the Church brings a sign of hope”. But in the meantime young people are emigrating to the places of destination that were those of their fathers, that is, England and Germany. The reality in Moldova and Albania. Monsignor Cesare Lodeserto designed a snapshot of poverty in Moldova with a set of figures: “25% of the overall population are migrants, 30% do not have the bare minimum to survive and ours is therefore a country where 50% of the population lives in discomfort”. The country has also experienced one of the saddest phenomena of the economic crisis, that of social orphans: children that have been left at home by their mothers to work as caregivers abroad. To make things worse, the Country is sadly in the lead in terms of child suicide since “when human vocabulary is stripped of the words mom and dad, the poor are exposed to the risk of suicide, lifelong loneliness and abandonment”, said Lodeserto. In Albania – said Archbishop Angelo Massafra, Bishop of Shkodra – the crisis led Albanian immigrants to return to their homeland, because “abroad, especially in Italy and Greece, there are no jobs” And the Church? “The Church – Bishop Crepaldi answered – has always been on the forefront of poverty, because the poor are the great treasure of the Church. And she does so with a great creative ability in meeting the needs of the poor. ” New commitment in Barcelona. The activity of the European bishops and of CCEE is ongoing. From ‘November 8 to 10 takes place the meeting of the Presidents of the Episcopal Commissions for Social Communications of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe promoted this year in Barcelona. The theme is “Evangelizing the ‘soul of Europe. The contribution of social communications”.