Religious communities currently offer 1,000 places for refugees
Vienna, March 29, 2022 (KAP) Austria’s Catholic religious orders have been committed to taking in and caring for refugees in Ukraine since the beginning of the war and are constantly expanding their assistance. To what extent this is happening is shown by a current listing by the Austrian Orders Conference on Tuesday. Around 1,000 places are currently being made available in the monasteries and communities, with more being added all the time. Secretary General Sr. Christine Rod was overwhelmed by the great commitment. “Anyone who has a small or large living space somewhere shares it with Ukrainian refugees,” the nun said in the statement.
The aid provided by the local religious orders ranges from food and material donations to financial aid, support and work by religious on site in the Ukraine and in Austria, to taking in refugees and praying for peace. Accommodation is already the case in many religious orders, or detached apartments, individual rooms or entire guest wings are being prepared for accommodation. Sr. Rod spoke of “unbureaucratic and quick help” that was often decided and organized by the religious community itself. They often cooperate with other aid organizations such as Caritas and the Red Cross, with parishes, dioceses or even state institutions.
Sr. Rod and Archabbot Korbinian Birnbacher from Salzburg – both chairmen of the Order’s conference – see the help as the Order’s response to the often experienced personal helplessness in view of the incomprehensible extent of the war. Birnbacher described the commitment and solidarity with the people affected by the war as a matter of course and part of the “DNA of the religious orders”. His deputy at the head of the Order’s conference, Sr. Franziska Bruckner, explained that this commitment begins with offering prayers for peace. Many small “lights against the darkness of war” would be lit in the churches during the day.
Pens open their guest houses
The listing of the places made available so far illustrates how extensive this help is. For example, the Archabbey of St. Peter in Salzburg currently has nine refugees in several vicarages, four of them children, and facilities for another 20 people. Melk Abbey has made its guest house with 30 beds available and has already taken in the first refugees, Göttweig Abbey three people so far, and another 12 are to come. Lilienfeld Abbey has provided an apartment for people from Ukraine and is currently preparing five more apartments. Two family accommodations took place in the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, but in the meantime they had traveled on to acquaintances.
In Vienna, the Schottenstift has prepared two apartments and is currently creating further housing options in the monastery and in its parishes. In Lambach Abbey (Upper Austria), the entire guest wing was opened to displaced persons, just as refugees have already moved in in Florian Abbey. In Wilhering Abbey, where a Caritas refugee home has been housed since 2014, nine people were also housed in empty parish courtyards, and Engelszell Abbey provided living space for 15 people. The Franciscan monasteries of Maria Enzersdorf (Lower Austria), Pupping (Upper Austria) and Innsbruck are currently preparing to take in refugees.
In Styria, the St. Lambrecht Abbey has made five apartments available and has already taken in 22 people. The Mariazell Benedictine Superiorate took in 38 Ukrainian refugees, including 14 children, in the pilgrim hostel. Admont Abbey contains three refugee families.
Women’s orders accept families
The Discalced Carmelites have opened their guest room to refugees, the Carmelites of St. Joseph and St. Teresa Innsbruck to a family of five. Three women, each with a child, are accommodated with the Benedictine Sisters of Adoration in Vienna-Ottakring, a family of five and a young person in the Viennese girls’ home of the Sisters Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and a family of ten with the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother in Vienna-Simmering. The School Sisters of the 3rd Order of St. Francis in Vienna are currently preparing an empty part of the building with around 30 rooms for the reception of refugees.
There are also accommodations in women’s orders with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who created space for 30 refugees in Innsbruck and a mother with daughters and at the Baumgartenberg location (Upper Austria). A mother and daughter found accommodation in the guest room of the Sisters of the Most Holy Eucharist in Salzburg. Refugees were taken in by the Mary Ward Sisters in St. Pölten-Lilienhof in the Caritas conference center, and a mother with two children by the nuns of the Daughters of Divine Love. The Wels Sisters of the Cross provide a total of five rooms in the guest area, the Franciscan Sisters of Vöcklabruck one apartment each in the mother house and in “Quartier 16”. In the vacant kindergarten in Hellmonsödt (Upper Austria), the Franciscan Sisters of Suitable Christian Love recently cared for 88 refugees until they found a place to live. In Tyrol, the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis have provided two rooms.
The Sisters of Mercy Zams provide a total of 35 beds in their mother house and an apartment in the Innsbruck area. The Sisters of Mercy in Vienna-Gumpendorf offer a floor for 25 refugees in the Laab am Walde monastery and are currently preparing to move in. The Sisters of Mercy Graz provide an area of the nursing home Herz-Jesu-Heim for 30 refugees, while the Maria Rast Sisters’ Home in der Dult, municipality of Gratkorn (Styria) offers its ground floor as well as short-term accommodation in the retreat house.
Salesians: focus on children
The Salesians of Don Bosco are currently setting up a flat-sharing community in the Don Bosco Social Work (Vienna) for ten children aged three to 14 and are also planning two to three flat-sharing communities for underage child refugees as well as a mother-child house. In addition, employees of the Don Bosco grammar school in Unterwaltersdorf have taken in three families, and the parish of St. Josef in Klagenfurt has also made an apartment available. The Don Bosco Sisters are currently preparing to take in two refugee families at their locations in Vöcklabruck and Stams.
In some Jesuit houses, including the Jesuit colleges in Innsbruck and Vienna, rooms were made available for the temporary accommodation of people from the Ukraine. The Jesuits also provide two rooms for people from the Ukraine in the old vicarage in Vienna-Lainz. The Sacred Heart Missionaries in Salzburg have currently taken in 15 war refugees in their mission house (“Bondeko”), the Missionaries of the Costly Blood in Salzburg three more Ukrainians. The first refugees have also already moved into the Europakloster Gut Aich in the Salzkammergut. 16 refugees have found accommodation in the Salzburg monastery in the Capuchin province of Austria-South Tyrol.
Apartments for refugees are also currently being organized by the Redemptorists in Vienna-Hernals; families have already been accepted into the monasteries in Vienna-Maria am Gestade and Maria Puchheim (Upper Austria). The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ (Vienna) organized accommodation for refugees with friends of their families. The convent of the Brothers of Charity in Vienna provides three apartments. In the Schenkenfelden (Upper Austria) living environment, the Merciful Brothers took action on 15 deaf Ukrainian refugees. The Teutonic Order plans to take in twelve refugees in Gumpoldskirchen Castle and around 100 refugees in its South Tyrolean branch. Housing for 107 Ukrainian children – some with disabilities – and their companions were also organized by the familiars of the Teutonic Order in East Austria, in addition to apartments in Vienna, Styria and Tyrol. (www.ordensgemeinschaften.at)