Lisbon celebrated mass for those who died alone
The Church of São Roque celebrated this Sunday (17), the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the Homeless, a mass in memory of all those who die and whose bodies are not claimed by the Institute of Legal Medicine. In the city of Lisbon, in the space of a year, 212 people died on the streets, in hospitals or in pensions and rented rooms in absolute solitude.
A record number since 2004, according to statistics compiled by the Irmandade da Misericórdia and São Roque de Lisboa, which accompany these forgotten ones to the last address at funerals supported by Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon. The Irmandade da Misericórdia and São Roque de Lisboa have attended 2229 funerals since May 2004, when this social action began.
During the launch of the book What have you done with your brother?, which brings together texts by the late Alfredo Bruto da Costa on faith and poverty, the President of the Republic considers poverty “the problem of problems”. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who posthumously decorated the former minister of Social Affairs and former Santa Casa Ombudsman with the Order of Liberty, appealed for the commitment of Christians to act and remember that the National Strategy to Combat Poverty aims at “the way out the poverty of 360 thousand Portuguese and Portuguese until 2030 “and observed:” We are talking about more than 50 years or a path of 50 years to reach 2 million and 200 thousand “, the number of poor that Portugal will have at this moment , according to the head of state. “So we have a huge problem, a problem first, the problem of problems.”
According to an analysis carried out by Pordata, based on data from the National Institute of Statistics, more than 1.6 million Portuguese people live below the poverty line, that is, on less than 540 euros a month, a reality that affects large but large families. also those who live alone, the elderly, children, students and workers.
Having a job is no guarantee of not being poor and Portugal is among the countries in Europe with the highest risk of poverty among workers. In 2020, 9.5% of the employed population was considered poor, that is, they lived specifically on the poverty line, which in that year was situated at 540 euros a month. Although in 2019 there were records of more than 1.6 million poor people, the Social Insertion Income (RSI) was only attributed to 16.7% of these people.