Robaird O’Cearbhaill
Hong Kong correspondent
In Latin America the Covid pandemic lockdowns, social distancing and economic downturns have affected the poorest. However, the Church and other Christians, have reached out to cater for as many of the most vulnerable as possible. “From Mexico to Argentina and Chile, Catholic institutions have been pointedly active in offering support to the most disadvantaged social segments during the pandemic,” according to Eduardo Campos Lima in the US National Catholic Reporter (NCR).
Campos Lima points out how essential help was provided by Catholic brothers and sisters, Jesuits in several Latin American countries, a bishop in Argentina, and a vicar in the Dominican Republic.
Also, the writer argues, “Two social groups in São Paulo, the largest Brazilian city, have been strongly impacted, among others. More than half of the population in Mexico and in the Dominican Republic, for instance, work in unregistered menial jobs, street vending and other precarious activities — without governmental protection or labor rights. With the establishment of partial or full quarantines, those people saw their income suddenly disappear.”
Moreover he wrote, “Large Latin American cities, such as Mexico City, São Paulo, and Santiago, moreover, have big homeless populations, numbering in the tens of thousands. With the outbreak, most governmental shelters ceased to receive new members. The assistance provided by non-governmental organizations and religious groups, in many cases, has been suspended.”
São Paulo, for example, has an estimated 25,000 homeless people, who were much ignored as the pandemic swept in, according to local Fr Diego Melo. “The homeless population is much marginalized now. Many groups that used to distribute food among them left the streets out of fear of the disease.” NCR added that the “Franciscans already had different food programs directed to poor communities and homeless people in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, and in Espírito Santo State. In São Paulo, the Franciscans set up a tent in front of one of its downtown houses and started to serve at least 2,500 hot meals each day.”
Fr Melo said, “We realized the new situation required a reconfiguration of our work and we did so.”
In Chile, NCR added that Franciscan sisters were with the “volunteers (to) take food to share with homeless people and to street sweepers in Santiago, Chile, who are having a more difficult time than usual as services are closed because of the coronavirus.” As Sister Patricia Baez said to NCR: “Everyone talks about how it’s important to help the neediest in society in a moment like that, but most people are closed at home now. The homeless population is completely invisible at this moment,” she said. “I can’t be calm at home if I know that my brothers and sisters don’t have food.”
(Next week, part 2 of how Latin America, around half of the Roman Catholics, of the world are dealing with the vulnerable.) (Photo by National Catholic Reporter.
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