The services are also aimed at the poor and homeless
The “Pope Francis Laundry” came into operation this Wednesday (27th), a laundry service offered free of charge by the Vatican to low-income people, the homeless and immigrant workers.
The initiative, which also has a shower service to guarantee personal hygiene to those who need it, was opened in San Ferdinando, in the province of Reggio Calabria.
The community has less than 5 thousand inhabitants and is home to one of the many ghettos where hundreds of African immigrants live in poverty and degradation, waiting for a residence permit, and often exploited in the citrus fruit harvest.
«It is a new and ancient sign. The Holy Father has opened laundries and showers in many places. This is an evangelical gesture to give dignity to people, but also to show others that today there are these places that are difficult to understand and are places of shame for all of us”, the apostolic almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, tells ANSA.
The Pope’s almoner underlined that there are places without “electricity, without gas and often without running water”, recalling that there are a thousand people who “are without documents and if they are without documents they work illegally, they cannot open accounts in the bank, they can’t rent houses.”
“This initiative, which is repeated over time, is a source of joy for me because it is another possibility to be close to wounded humanity, a way to demonstrate the presence and closeness of God to the least” concluded Krajewski.
In addition to the five showers and the laundry with four washing machines and four dryers, located in two containers, the initiative will also include a service called “Presidio Desk”, to help immigrants with processing documents.
The two tools aim to give concrete form to charity and at the same time intelligence to works of mercy to restore dignity to many people, starting with the poorest.
In addition to Krajewski, Monsignor Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), among other religious people, were present at the inauguration. The initiative is promoted by the Procter&Gamble Italia group, hosted by the Apostolic Charity and carried out thanks to the involvement of the Caritas of the Diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi and the collaboration of Haier Europe. .
Source: Terra
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