Reflecting on the Church’s Social-Charitable Action with the Archbishop of Évora

We are challenged to have an ever-new and renewed look “at the margins”, beyond the reasonable border in the often hypocritical context of our society and culture; we are challenged to go to the limit, as Jesus was.

Tiago Abalroado / D. Francisco Senra Coelho

          Charity for the Church means “to look at the other as Christ would look”. How did Jesus look at the prostitute? How did he look at the leper, the blind man and the situation of the corrupt sinner, Matthew? How did Jesus look at Zacchaeus, the thief, or the excellent thief with him on the cross, despised by all and condemned to death?

          We are challenged to have an ever-new and renewed look “at the margins”, as Pope Francis says, beyond what is the border of reason in the often hypocritical context of our society and our culture; we are challenged to go to the limit, as Jesus was.

          One of the new forms of organization of Charity, which has emerged in our time, is the IPSS, the Particular Institutions of Social Solidarity of canonical origin, often founded by parishes, between parish priests and lay people and then confirmed by Bishops.

          In recent times, specifically at the level of the Episcopal Conference, there has been some reflection on this legacy that comes down to us, based on the certainty that the designated socio-charitable institutions were born from local entrepreneurship, from people who fell in love with the need to give concrete responses to the social vulnerabilities of their environments. The renewal of this segment of pastoral work, which will undoubtedly have to take place, cannot, however, take place by ignoring the experiential dimension of these people.

It is necessary to think of more committed and efficient ways to improve the existing response substantially and, at the same time, generate new responses suited to the social realities of today. It is essential to read the signs of the times and find ways of renewal, making change compatible with the current legislative framework.

          There are necessary ways to go in order to guarantee the institutions’ self-sustainability, the quality of social responses and the personalized follow-up of users. It is, above all, necessary to grow at the level of working together, to overcome a kind of checkered walled backyard where each institution, due to the struggle it had to go through to set itself up, got used to relying on itself without a close eye on the surroundings. Therefore, it would be of utmost importance to find, at present, ways of working together, concerning concrete measures for the benefit of institutions and their users, such as, for example, the creation of a purchasing center or even the negotiation agreement of insurance, electricity and fuel contracts.

          Likewise, it is urgent to resolve the workforce shortage in the various spheres of social institutions and, simultaneously, provide for the creation of favorable conditions for the provision of exemplary service in the health field in the context of the different types of response. There are, in this sense, services that have to be reflected, new services, reformulated services, Residential Structures for Elderly People that have to become Continuous Care Units, and new answers that are required.

          The new questions will have to be answered with reformulations, with readaptations worked together and in a programmed way, while still trying to solve the minor problems of the communities.

          Regrettably, public structures still cultivate the promotion of social work in series, in the form of the old mechanics of factories. Now, looking at current and emerging needs, it is necessary to think about revising the cooperation model between the State and the Social and Solidarity Sector according to an overall logic, through the attribution of financial contributions adjusted to the specific reality and work of each organization, without segmentations by the social response and favoring their autonomy. It is not healthy for institutions to walk around with a hat in hand, asking that cooperation agreements be reviewed; there must be trust in the institutions through an authentic partnership relationship.

          In the particular context of organized Social Pastoral, parish priests are called to be a bridge between the reality of the social dimension and the organized charity of the Church, with the management of the various structures being able to be entrusted to professionally competent lay people with Christian formation, who carry out their functions on behalf of all the Christians who form the communities.

          However, after all, what is the Christian matrix? It is personalization; it is seeing Christ in the other. The specialty and expertise of the Church’s social institutions must be in humanity. Every employee of a Christian IPSS is a volunteer, a volunteer in smiling, welcoming, tender and listening. The canonical social institutions must be very open organizations, promoters of public relations with the outside world and, in a particular way, with the communities where they are inserted.

          The directors, in turn, cannot be groups of gentlemen who, once a month, appear in the organizations, in uniform, leaving their cars in the private parking lots and going directly to the meeting room, and then to another room , dine on a menu different from the one intended for users. Whoever is at the head of an institution of this type must have the capacity to generate communion and unity, to unite, to make the rationality of that measure, that norm, which, at that moment, may know the imposition, but which is fundamental, to, at a later moment, know the liberation.

          More than having ideas, it is necessary to read reality, perceive the signs of the times and try to solve with realism, creativity and entrepreneurship the context that we are given to live in, so that we are not idiots with ideas, but people who, through unity, face with initiatives the challenges of the present and the future.

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