AMERICA/ARGENTINA - Drugs among the new forms of poverty to be addressed urgently

Wednesday, 21 December 2016 youth   drug trade   collaboration  

Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - "We have to help those who have fallen to get up and prevent others who are vulnerable to fall ... We will never be able to replace families, but as a Church, we are the family of God, and we must make every effort to create a space in which children are able to feel cared for and protected": said His Exc. Mgr. Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi, Bishop of Nueve de Julio, during the meeting regarding the fight against drugs in his diocese in the north of Buenos Aires.
The Bishop, in front of about thirty people, including 17 representatives of the many districts in which the diocese is divided, said that after a year of monitoring the scourge of drugs among young people in the diocese, "we must all commit ourselves to work in the field of prevention". Then he proposed the establishment of reception centers and support in coordination with Caritas: "We must also change the current thinking that Caritas gives only clothes and food. Today there are new forms of poverty that we must urgently address".
The meeting was also attended by Pablo Vidal, of the Pastoral against drug-addiction of Caritas, to explain the work of the District Centers working in this field. He cited as an example the Caacupé Center, at the center of Buenos Aires, which now has more than a thousand families.
The meeting ended with a commitment to verify the real possibility of creating a center in each district. The Diocese of Nueve de Julio located in the northern area of the "Greater Buenos Aires" has an area of 57,016 km2 and a population of about 410,000 inhabitants, of whom 91% are Catholics. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 21/12/2016)


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