EUROPE/RUMANIA - First Don Orione Piccolo Cottolengo opened in the suburbs of Bucharest

Monday, 25 June 2007

Bucharest (Agenzia Fides) - The first Don Orione Piccolo Cottolengo in Rumania was recently opened in the Bucharest suburb of Voluntari (population 130.000). In the vast area where a Charity Village is under construction, there already stand a church and two homes run by Don Orione religious for orphans and elderly people. The main three-floor building has been inaugurated and the top floor is still to be finished. Present at the inauguration ceremony the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Jeane-Claude Perisset, the Catholic Archbishop Robu Ioan of Bucharest, two representatives of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Bucharest, the Orthodox parish priest of Voluntari, the Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini and the mayor of Voluntari Pandele Florentin Costel.
"The building is modern - said the director general of the Congregation Don Flavio Peloso, present at the ceremony - very luminous and well arranged for various services: places for 16 children with disabilities; rooms for 60 elderly people or sick people with no one to care for them (over 500 applications were received in the past year; a concerning social phenomenon given little or no consideration by the authorities); section for rehabilitation and physiotherapy, at the service of the inmates of the Piccolo Cottolengo and open as an out patient service to the local people ".
The Work of Don Orione has been present in Rumania since January 1991. It began with an oratory and school at Oradea , a town in the North East; now there is a high school, the only one of its kind, open to pupils of all faiths. In the city of Iasi - Moldavia, in 1998 a seminary was opened. Other structures include a Centre for Spirituality and an Oratory for local Rumanian and Rom children; two small homes for orphans or children from families in difficulty; a centre to treat people who are alcohol dependent with a resident psychiatrist and social worker. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 25/6/2007; righe 23, parole 340)


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