SIDIC

Centre d'accueil

Caritas internationalis

Three sisters from the Mediterranean Province have been sent to Rome temporarily to render services needed at the Generalate. Some important jobs need to be done: the SIDIC (Service International de Documentation Judéo-Chrétienne = International Jewish-Christian Documentation Service), the secretariat in various languages, welcoming guests…

SIDIC involves a presence in the library, the documentation center, the organization of lectures, visits of the ghetto or the synagogue, various conferences in Rome or elsewhere, linking with other groups of Jewish-Christian dialogue, etc. etc… One sister is doing this work full-time. You can look up the SIDIC website:

http://sidic.org/vf/

Welcoming guests is particularly important in this house: it is a hub for the sisters of the Congregation. It is also a place for various conferences, meetings and encounters and even for rest or renewal for sisters coming from the five continents. It requires a lot of availability. But the two sisters who give themselves to that do keep part of their time for an external apostolate: for one, it is welcoming refugees in an Anglican parish; for the other, it is voluntary work at the African Service of Caritas Internationalis. Basically, the activities of Caritas (African Service) consist in receiving and sending mail! Every day, there are requests for help, one more interesting than the other, but it is rare that they can give a positive response. The requests are for small agricultural and breeding projects which allow families to meet their basic needs: the need for medical material, for pharmaceutical products, for scholarships for students who have lost their father because of war and therefore no longer have what they need to continue their secondary or university studies, etc. etc… One of the greatest causes of distress is AIDS. It cannot be treated, since the tritherapy is too expensive. So efforts are made to find NGO's which with united efforts create small projects for the benefit of widows and orphans. Caritas welcomes migrants who are seeking temporary shelter and directs them to the "restaurants of the heart", which luckily are numerous enough in Rome. In this, the main work is one of coordination rather than of helping directly.