In the recent Caritas 2021 report, the new poverty in the city of Rome emerges. In 48.7% of cases, the new people (7,476) who turned to parish centers are Italian, followed by Filipinos (16.3%), Peruvians (4.9%), Romanians (4.7%) and 97 other nationalities. In 64.4% of cases, the representative of the family who crossed the threshold of the counseling center for the first time is a woman. 54% of new members are under 45 years old. Dramatic and eloquent figures.
Whoever will be the new mayor of Rome will immediately have to face, among the first emergencies, that of new poverty. Pope Francis reminds us that "no one is saved alone": a perfect expression as a very secular warning for restart of the city, to leave behind the disaster in which we are struggling.
On Tuesday 12 October the Di Liegro Foundation organized a mass celebrated by archbishop Gianpiero Palmieri, vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome, for remember Monsignor Luigi Di Liegro 24 years after his death, Don Gigi for everyone, who founded the Diocesan Caritas of Rome in 1979.
Monsignor Palmieri said: «Don Luigi Di Liegro had a profoundly biblical vision of the city: a place where men live together, a collective body in which we are all called to participate. A living body that asks to be honored
by each of its members."
Also a very secular reminder. Rome can and must start again but it cannot and must not leave anyone behind.
From the Corriere della Sera of 18 October 2021
