Pope donates rent for beach serving people with disabilities

April 27, 2017 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Vatican City, Apr 27, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has donated the rent for a private Italian beach that allows disabled people to enjoy the shore, the charity that manages the project announced this week.

The group Work of Love, a Catholic non-profit, has rented part of the Little Madonna beach located near Rome since 2012 in an effort to give disabled people better access to the beach. It is equipped with ramps, walkways and specialized beach chairs and water-friendly wheelchairs, and includes amenities such as a snack bar, changing rooms, and showers.

The beach is run by a group of volunteers and specialized FINP (Italian Swimming Federation Paralympic) staff and is open every day of the week during peak summer swimming season.

Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, told CNN Pope Francis gave the group an undisclosed sum to "support the project that helps disabled youth and in particular to cover the cost of the annual rent for the beach known as the Little Madonna."

The beach is the only one of its kind in the region, and was created to allow all people to enjoy the beach “without architectural and mental barriers,” the group states on their site.

In a statement, the charity said they received the donation with "enthusiasm and astonishment."

It is not the first time Pope Francis has sponsored trips to the beach. Last summer, Archbishop Krajewski told Vatican Insider that the Holy Father had been treating Rome’s homeless to beach trips followed by pizza parties, sometimes with the Pope himself serving up a slice.

He said the van would take about 10 people each day to go swimming on the Italian coast, nearly 20 miles from Rome. The archbishop drove the van, while passengers sang and listened to the radio. At the beach, each guest was offered a swimsuit and towel and afterwards was treated to pizza.

“We certainly are not saving the world with some of these initiatives, we are not solving the problems of the homeless in Rome, but at least we are restoring to them a little dignity,” Archbishop Krajewski said at the time.

Other initiatives carried out by Archbishop Krajewski on behalf of the Pope include a dormitory, barber services and showers for those in need. In 2015, the Pope invited a group of homeless people in Rome to the Sistine Chapel. In 2016, he invited 2,000 homeless people and migrants to the circus. Pope Francis also sent an electronic scooter to an elderly couple with disabilities, who had difficulty getting around. He has also given Christmas gifts to poor migrants and umbrellas to the homeless.

 

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The Dispatch

Vatican abuse commission now more ‘impact-focused,’ Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley says

May 8, 2023 Catholic News Agency 6
Cardinal Sean O’Malley briefs reporters during the Vatican abuse summit. / Daniel Ibanez

Boston, Mass., May 8, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

In his role as president of the Vatican’s child protection commission, Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said the body’s recent actions “represent a major shift towards a more impact-focused direction.” 

At the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which took place from May 3–6, members adopted several new policies and updates in an attempt to address the sexual abuse crisis. 

Those changes include a proposal updating the Church’s guidelines for addressing clergy sexual abuse, a forthcoming “audit tool” to “evaluate the adequacy of local churches safeguarding guidelines,” and a new fund supported by bishops’ conferences around the world to support victims, their families, and communities in impoverished areas, according to the commission’s May 8 press release.

“At times, this new direction has been both steep and fast for all of us reflecting the urgency of the challenges. This accelerated pace over the last six months has caused growing pains as we have attempted to respond to both short and longer-term needs,” O’Malley said in the press release.

“In our plenary, we developed key adjustments to our working methodology so as to clarify our different roles and to create a sense of common ownership of our mandate and of our collective responsibility for its implementation,” O’Malley said.

During the plenary assembly, the commission also reviewed a partnership agreement that it has had with the GHR Foundation since December 2022. The GHR Foundation, a U.S.-based Catholic philanthropic organization, provides “regional safeguarding consultants” to the commission, the press release said. 

The commission reviewed the framework for the Annual Report of Safeguarding Policies and Procedures in the Church, which Pope Francis requested in April to promote “transparency and accountability” on sexual abuse responses from the local churches around the world.

“The plan adopts a human-centered design methodology that focuses on how the needs of victims and survivors can be prioritized and addressed in the Church’s reporting mechanisms with the purpose of offering proposals to the Holy Father on how gaps can be addressed,” the press release said.

As requested by Pope Francis, the commission brainstormed about ways “to animate the Church to combat the evils of online child abuse,” the press release said.

A five-year plan “identifying objectives, goals, and performance indicators to measure progress and to provide accountability to stakeholders” was also adopted by the commission, the press release said. 

Additionally, the commission collaborated with the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples “to further the goals of safeguarding through the work of the Vatican office that oversees the Church’s life in more than half the territory of the globe,” the press release said.

A new study “of the theme of vulnerability in its various forms” was commissioned “so as to equip Church entities with robust measures to combat this emerging area of abuse,” the press release said.

“The Holy Father has asked a lot from us, and we are all committed to making this work,” O’Malley said. 

“We have sought the necessary resources to respond adequately, and we are confident in the plan we have laid out and the people we have working with us,” he concluded.

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