The Church of Rome Calls for Greater Effort in Addressing City's Challenges

Work, home, health, school. These are the four major sectors in which the Capital is still suffering today. Fifty years after the historic conference on the Evils of Rome - organized by the then DC and various ecclesiastical sectors to become aware of the transformation that was running fast at that time together with the growth of pockets of extreme poverty in the suburbs full of immigrants from the South - we return to take stock of the state of things. 'The Church of Rome calls its children, all, near and far, so that they can find themselves and dialogue, for the good of all and especially the poorest, to find together that hope and work for that city that is not there yet but that we can and must build together'. In a 'Letter to the sisters and brothers living in Rome' Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar of the diocese analyzes the situation and asks for greater commitment in a cross-cutting way. Rome, the Church denounces the lack of security in the outskirts of the Capital: 'The institutions take charge of the discomforts'. 'Today's Rome is very changed - writes De Donatis -. The expectations of charity and justice are partly the same and partly new, but all waiting for an answer'. Rome is today 'a city with, roughly, the same population as fifty years ago but its composition is different: the average age exceeds 46 years decreasing as we move away from the center. Single-component families are 46%; in the historic center they approach 60%. The incidence of the foreign population, which reaches 14%, is almost double the national average. Rome participates, albeit in a relatively attenuated form, in the Italian demographic winter: stable population, aging, thinning of family ties. It lives instead in a more accentuated way the migratory phenomena'. Mafia, torchlight procession in Rome to remember the attacks on the basilica of Lateran and Velabro in 1993. To take stock of the journey made so far and the areas that need greater cooperation between all the forces present in the territory, a conference will be held on February 19 with representatives of the Region, the Municipality, theologians, historians, sociologists retracing a bit the conference that was made half a century ago. Father Giulio Albanese, organizer of the event, emphasized how the Church wants to question all Roman forces to renew commitment and responsibility. Rome, 'Fragile Friends': the solidarity collection of the association 'All Taxis For Love'. Here is the list of Municipalities that adhere to the initiative. De Donatis also cited 'the latest Poverty Report of the Roman Caritas: it allows to give an updated look that goes beyond the average values to grasp the differences and weigh inequalities in terms of access to services; of the distribution of wealth; of opportunities for care and assistance. Inequalities that end up assuming three characteristic dimensions: territorial, with the Municipalities of the center that differentiate from the suburbs; generational, with the older classes that perceive higher income shares; of nationality, with foreign citizens who have much lower incomes'.