Social pastoral bishop warns of the need for income balance in Portugal – Current Affairs – SAPO.pt

For José Traquina, the studies have been successful and there is “the certainty that a better balance is necessary”, which is why it is required “from those who have responsibilities in the governance and management of the country and institutions (…) that the balance of income among the Portuguese is better and not so distant”.

“We live, perhaps, in one of the countries in Europe where the difference in people’s income is greater, and this creates difficulties”, which, he says, “have not been alleviated”.

According to the president of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral and Human Mobility, “there has been growth in economic stability for the country in the international image, but in social well-being this has no correspondence, which raises questions of governance, of how things get their bearings.”

Bishop José Traquina warns, in an interview with the Lusa agency, of the need to read the global situation of income imbalances in Portugal, to find consistent solutions and “not just be helping people, but [que permanecem] always in a [situação de] dependence without leaving that situation”.

The prelate does not hide his discomfort when, when analyzing the Portuguese situation, he finds that “there are people who are poor – within that number of two million people at risk of poverty or in poverty, or even in severe poverty – [mas] who work, who have income, but this income is insufficient for the family’s expenses, for people’s expenses”.

From the outset, he argues that “we must value work, value those who work”, in order to increase their income.

Situations of social imbalance in the country have led to an increase in the demand for help from Church solidarity institutions — such as Cáritas, Private Social Solidarity Institutions (IPSS) or Misericórdias -, which “creates difficulties”, leading those organisms running out of possibilities to do anything.

In the case of IPSS, difficulties also arise from the impossibility of users, or their family members, “at a certain point, not having the capacity to correspond to what is their contribution” to the expenses of a person who is in an institution “and who It has a calculated cost.”

“A study by the Catholic University of Porto accurately calculated that the State’s contribution was 38% of a person’s expenditure in an institution. What you stated in the previous Government [Ana Mendes Godinho] What I had in mind was for the State’s contribution to reach 50%”, recalls José Traquina, recognizing that, even if the former governor’s idea had gone ahead, “people are not in a position, on their own, to collaborate with others 50%”.

This situation leads institutions to seek support in society, which does not prevent “many from reaching November [de cada ano] in enormous distress, not knowing how they are going to pay the Christmas allowance, what the end of the year will be like”.

“Sometimes it happens that, at the last minute, a decision comes from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to dispatch a fraction, a support, a decision that allows breathing space and manages to pay the employees, the institution’s collaborators”, says the bishop.

In this chapter, the president of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral states that, “sometimes, the difficulties are because the institution is very large, other times because it is very small. If it is very small, there is no scale to resolve it, and sometimes it is more difficult. And it is also different if an institution is in the interior of the country or in a large city in the country and the State contributions are the same, but the reality is not the same”.

And this is yet another reason to defend that the Government, whatever it may be, “must have the aim of balancing society” as one of its objectives.

“He wants [o Governo] a society that, effectively, wants to do justice and wants a global evolution of the country, of all people, or simply wants to have a high, stable or evolving economy, but always leaving more poor people behind?”, asks the bishop, highlighting that “there are academics, there are prepared people, studies have been carried out, they know how to identify problems and there are even people who academically know how to point out solutions”.

Therefore, for José Traquina, “the Government can reach out to people trained in a certain subject, even those linked to the economy, to respond to these situations, prepared people”, never forgetting that “not all people were born with the same capacity for development , but they also have the right to live”.

JLG // ZO

Lusa/End