Wuhu Last year our Parish donated £692.89 from the collection.  Can we aim to do the same  this year by donating on line?

In past years we have had envelopes and perhaps a speaker from the pulpit but this year things are very different.   Things are different for a lot us.  Some are experiencing loss of income from loss of work or reduced hours.  Some have more money through inability to spend on the usual little joys of life.  For some people in our community Inequality suddenly feels more pronounced.   A different form of inequality arises from being confined to our homes.  People react differently and whilst for some it isn’t much of a problem, for others there is the stress of inactivity, isolation or worse.  The stricture is the same but the effect creates another form of inequality.

For the people who rely on Caritas their problems have increased.  Once again the gap between those who have and those have not has grown bigger.

vacillatingly Fr Ged Murphy, Episcopal Vicar for Caritas, speaks for Caritas

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a familiar one: a traveller is beaten by robbers, stripped and left for dead by the road. First a holy man and then another comes by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan happens upon and helps the injured man, showing great compassion, reflecting the lengths to which love will go. He treats the injured man not as an enemy but as a neighbour, as one of his own. Through this parable, Jesus indicates that a person truly acts as a neighbour through love.

“But who is my neighbour?”

Every gift Caritas receives means we can love and support the most vulnerable and marginalised in our communities. We provide a befriending service for older people, preventing loneliness and isolation. We welcome the stranger, teaching English to those seeking asylum and those with refugee status so they can quickly integrate into their new home community. And we continue to love and feed the hungry, and shelter the homeless, across Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Pope Francis reminds us that, before we are anything else, we are brothers and sisters sharing a common home, and we are called to become neighbours and friends. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen rising inequalities in wealth and new forms of poverty and a disregard for human worth. We have a universal responsibility to act; to accept the obligations we bear to each other, and to find ‘fraternal love’. A willingness to respond to human need wherever it is found. So I ask for your help in responding now. Please choose to help Caritas to continue its life-changing work during 2021 with our brothers and sisters in need. The best way to answer the question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ is to choose to become.

So how do I donate?

It’s quite easy actually.  £10 provides a weekly befriending phone call.  £30 provides one to one case support work for the vulnerable.  £55 pays for groceries for a small family.  Please give what you can by clicking on the link https://www.caritassalford.org.uk/service-view/sunday2021/

Learn more about Caritas

Read the latest Caritas Salford Beacon.

Read the Caritas impact report for 2020