Parishes fighting poverty

Voluntary after-school coaching for children having problems to read and write and support groups for lonely elderly people are just two community projects designed to help reduce poverty.

The initiatives were thought up and backed by the Diakonia Commission, a voluntary Church programme set up within each parish to meet the community's social needs.

The commission, made up of volunteers, was one way of concretely tackling poverty in the parish and was highly praised in a discussion between four parish priests during a two-day live-in at the Archbishop's Seminary, in Rabat.

During the discussion yesterday, chaired by journalist Mario Micallef, the priests explained that, among other things, the commission helped those in need make contact with support agencies.

Fleur-de-Lys parish priest Fr Joe Saliba said the Church and, specifically, parish priests, had to focus more on tackling poverty in the community.

All four parish priests highlighted the lack of information about welfare services. "People who need such services the most still don't know about them. In fact, many parishioners come to us for help and we refer them to the desired services," Fr Saliba said.

Poverty was not limited to shortage of money but was also caused by the lack of God's presence in people's lives. Children who were distressed because of their parents' constant arguing or elderly people who were abandoned by their families also fell into the category of poverty, Siġġiewi parish priest Fr Alfred Buhagiar explained.

Another problem was that some people became complacent and did not feel the need to make an effort to move forward or improve their situation. This meant priests had to sometimes push the person forward, Fr Eric Overend, president of the College of Parish Priests, said.

If people left God out of their lives, then they would try to fill the gap with other things, such as money or material items, Fr Christopher Galdes pointed out. "This poverty of values will, in turn, be passed on to their children."

The strong stigma behind poverty was one of the biggest problems to tackle because people tried to hide it, the Archbishop's delegate, Fr Charles Tabone said.

"Malta's poverty rate is at par with the EU average but it will continue growing if the country tries to hide it."

The Church's role was not to offer a service - that was the role of other government agencies - but to open the heart of God to the people, he said.