Vatican parishes welcome refugee families

Via Gregoria VII

Following the Angelus with pilgrims on Sunday 6 September 2015, Pope Francis invited all parishes to host a family of refugees, starting in the diocese of Rome.

Two Vatican parishes: St Anna and St Peter, immediately took steps to respond to this invitation, in collaboration with the Apostolic Almoner Archbishop Konrad Krajewski and the Sant'Egidio Community.

The St Anna parish community in the Borgo area now host a Syrian family - a young couple with their two children.

The parish of St Peter's Basilica, have welcomed an Eritrean family composed of a mother and three children, in a large apartment situated in the area of Via Gregorio VII. The woman has two more children who are still in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, but the Sant'Egidio Community is working to reunite the family by the end of the month or within a few weeks.

The youngest child, just a few months old, was born in Norway where the family had arrived, and from where they were sent back to Italy in accordance with the Dublin Convention. The family shares the apartment with a young friend and her young son.

Source: VIS