The Uruguayan Episcopal Conference was organizing the V National Eucharistic Congress, which was to be held in October. Palabra had thought of interviewing Cardinal Daniel Sturla on this occasion. The doubt was whether with the delay to 2021, due to Covid-19, it was appropriate to delay the interview as well. And if there is one thing that the Archbishop of Montevideo does not know, it is to say no. He has a hard-earned reputation. He has a hard-earned reputation. And he answered: "Come on, come on. And then he pointed out that the V Eucharistic Congress actually began already, with the renewal of the consecration of Uruguay to the Virgin of the Thirty-three, in November last year.

In this country where soccer is a passion, it is not easy to "party" the Church has to play in Montevideo. Public education is "secular, free and compulsory"The Salesian cardinal recalls, for whom it is important to "to foster a firm, strong, transparent, joyful Catholic identity, and at the same time to have the capacity for dialogue".. In the interview he talks about ecclesiastical initiatives, vocations, the "peripheries"... For example, he refers to Father "Cacho" (Rubén Isidoro Alonso, SDB). He used to say that our poor are "God's poor", the Cardinal points out, because part of the reality of secularization in Uruguay touched above all the poorest people. We begin with the Pope.

Were you surprised to be named a cardinal and did you know Pope Francis?

-It was a total surprise! I say this not to be modest, but because it is a reality. The Pope named me Cardinal as a gift to the Uruguayan Church, which he holds in high esteem, because he knows it because of its proximity, because of its closeness, because he has many friends in Uruguay. I did not know Pope Francis. I had greeted him for the first time when I was auxiliary bishop, in Rio de Janeiro, at the World Youth Day in 2013. And I had not done anything relevant in a year as archbishop either. I think it was a gesture of affection towards the Uruguayan church.

In any case, the Pope's gesture has had a good "return": the Cardinal is very fond of the portion of the Church that fell to his lot, and is achieving objectives and adhesions.

-The Church of Montevideo is beautiful! In Montevideo, like all the Uruguayan Church, it is a poor and free Church, small and beautiful. It has been free because the secularization of a hundred years ago meant that it had to manage on its own, without the support of the State and many times with a certain hostility... peaceful, not an aggressive hostility, a certain disdain. And therefore it has the beauty of being a Church where nobody is Catholic for social convenience, nobody becomes a priest because he is going to have a good time, vocations are more suffering vocations... And all this gives it its own characteristics.

It is also a Church that suffered a lot in the post-conciliar period, like other Churches, and where there has been a very big drop in the participation of the faithful... This is what questions us and what we are trying to respond to.

You have insisted, as a pastoral urgency, to reach the most deprived neighborhoods, the "peripheries", as Pope Francis calls them. 

-Father "Cacho" (Rubén Isidoro Alonso, SDB), a priest whose cause for beatification we have begun, spent the last fourteen years of his life sharing his life in a "cantegril" ("Villa miseria"), a very poor place. He said that our poor are "God's poor." because part of the reality of secularization in this country touched above all the poorest people. 

I mean, our poverty has this characteristic: they are poor people who do not know God, who do not know who Jesus Christ is, whose religious life is very ignorant, very indifferent. Many of them have references with parishes and Catholic social works, but it is a reference that does not touch the religious.

For almost a century, students in public schools have not received a Christian education. How can we evangelize in a society marked by the absence of Christian values?

-I think there are two things that are very important to me.. How to promote, with absolute clarity, a firm, strong, transparent, joyful Catholic identity, and at the same time have the capacity for dialogue. This is important, because whenever identity is underlined, it seems as if one were acquiring a crusader's armor....

The proposal is to be able to have a clear identity in a plural society, with a spirit of dialogue, without complexes, which is something that perhaps in the Church of Uruguay there have been. And, at the same time, without pretensions of a Christianity that in Uruguay was never firm, and that has not existed for a hundred years. In other words, it is not a question of returning to a glorious past, which we never had in Uruguay, but of looking with serenity and joy at our Catholic identity, in the context of the plural and democratic society that marks our Uruguayan culture.

Along these lines, Cardinal Sturla planned an important mission in the archdiocese.

-We made a Missionary Program "Jacinto Vera" (venerable first bishop of Montevideo, 1813-1881), whose aim was to be, indeed, the first bishop of Montevideo, 1813-1881, "Church on the way out", and not only on paper. Last year, the first experience was carried out, which was called Mission Casa de Todos. Those parishes that wanted to join in, 50 out of the 83 parishes of the archdiocese. There was a mobilization to go out to the streets, to go to the shopping malls, to be in the buses, to do activities, to invite the people of the different neighborhoods to an activity organized by the parish. 

It was above all a mobilization of the parishes... And many said: at last the Catholic Church is seen in the street, at last the Church is going out to evangelize....

Showing that the Church is alive is important for everyone... There are pastoral initiatives in the archdiocese that have left a special mark.

-In 2016 we launched the campaign "Christmas with Jesus." a program to be developed during the Advent season, consisting of five points: to make the novena of the Immaculate Conception, praying the Rosary of the Dawn in certain places; to make a gesture of solidarity on the part of the family or the community; a prayer to be prayed on Christmas Eve in family homes, since here, officially, Christmas Day is the day of the family: in Uruguay the calendar was secularized in 1919... 

– Supernatural "Christmas with Jesus". also includes placing a balcony with this expression and with the image of the manger. This has had a lot of echo and has also spread in the interior of the country: the balconies have been sold by the thousands... 

Finally, we encourage people to take the image of the Child Jesus to the church for blessing on the Sunday before Christmas. In this way, we encourage families to set up the nativity scene (the "crib"), because the custom of doing so was being abandoned and only putting up the tree...

You have often spoken of the Church moving forward among all, of the role of parents in education, of the importance of bringing Christ to temporal realities....

-No doubt it is so. And I believe that the Church in Uruguay has vast experience. First, because it is involved in education from kindergarten to university, with two universities: the Catholic University and the University of Montevideo. And with a very strong experience in social service.

At the same time, we have created instances of dialogue. We are re-promoting a Catholic institution that was very relevant at the time, the Catholic Club, founded in 1878, which tried to establish a dialogue with society. And, on the other hand, we are promoting an experience that was very interesting, which is called "Church in Dialogue. This arose from a call made by President Tabaré Vázquez in 2016 to make proposals for social dialogue.

It did not take off, but it created a dynamic that led to the fact that last year, which was an election year, all the presidential candidates were invited to meetings with this group of "Church in Dialogue, carried out by lay people. I participated in the meetings, but in reality they were the ones who carried it forward, and where the Church was able to contribute its voice and proposals, which we had elaborated in five topics of the Uruguayan reality: education, citizen coexistence, environment, promotion of women, the business world and labor.

Naturally, since evangelization is the task of everyone in the Church, priests are indispensable. On the first Thursdays of the month, we pray especially for vocations in the archdiocese....

-It is a very hard reality. In Uruguay there has always been a lack of priestly and religious vocations, and today vocations arrive in dribs and drabs. In the interdiocesan seminary, the only one in Uruguay, there are 25 young men, seven from the Archdiocese of Montevideo. But we are not giving up. Right now there is an interesting youth movement, which will bear fruit.

Your "moved" personal vocation, I mean the story of your priestly vocation, what is it? 

-My Salesian vocation was born in the Juan XXIII Institute, when I was 17 years old and studying in the fifth year of high school. The director was a man of God, a very good man who worked for vocations, Father Felix Irureta. After a retreat with my class, on September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, he asked me if I had thought of becoming a priest... And he added something very important: that he was asking me that question, but that he would never repeat it to me again, that I should feel totally free.

At that moment I thanked him, but I told him that I saw myself starting a family, having a career... He never said anything to me again. I continued studying, going out, in a very nice environment, at a very difficult time in the country... Besides, I had lost both my parents within three years of each other: my father died when I was thirteen and my mother died when I was sixteen. I am the youngest of five siblings, so we were left living together and organizing ourselves among ourselves.

When I finished my studies at John XXIII, I entered the Faculty of Law, but the restlessness was still beating in my heart. Then, in that first year of faculty, I finally decided to enter the Salesian novitiate, it was 1979, with nineteen years... To make it short, I was ordained priest on November 21, 1987, at the age of 28, and after some years I was director, precisely, of the Juan XXIII. Later I was appointed Provincial, Inspector of the Salesians of Uruguay, and three years after being Inspector, Pope Benedict appointed me auxiliary bishop of Montevideo.

Priests from other countries have arrived in Montevideo, they come to lend a hand....

-Uruguay is a challenge; I love it when priests who come here manage to capture the Uruguayan spirit and get past the first barrier. 

In our country the religious response is very cold, very scarce... Many priests get discouraged, especially those who come from countries where the figure of the priest is a figure of great prestige; they arrive here and find that the priest is not worth for the fact of being a priest, but because he is a good priest; not for the fact of having the title, the position, the collar... The priest who lives that experience, who sees its positive aspects and the challenge it implies, manages to understand the reality and bears fruit.

There is an Argentinean group that has been coming for six years now, and it is working very well and bearing much fruit, the Society of St. John. Last year a Peruvian congregation came, Pro Ecclesia SanctaThey are also working well in a parish and at the Catholic University.

On the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed began to be prayed throughout Uruguay on Sunday, another expression of concern for "God's poor" of all social levels.

-We have to be formed in the faith. I am not speaking of theological formation but of basic formation; many times, with a deficient catechesis, Catholics lack the basic elements of the faith. From here comes the concern of all the bishops, so that the faith may be known, so that we may be enthusiastic in the profession of the Catholic faith, with a clear identity in a pluralistic world such as that of Uruguay, which is very secularized. It is not a matter of shrinking or enlarging ourselves, but of being happy with the faith we believe and live. For that we have to know it. 

For this reason, during the Easter season we began here and spread throughout the dioceses, a formative process that consisted of a subsidy that brought a point of the catechism every day and a renewal of the profession of faith on the day of Pentecost. The recitation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is more catechetical than the Apostolic Creed, more explanatory of the essential truths of the faith, is along the same lines.

The Uruguayan Episcopal Conference was organizing the V National Eucharistic Congress for the month of October, but Covid-19 forced to delay it until 2021. What do you expect from this event?

-The Congress, in fact, began with the renewal of the consecration of Uruguay to the Virgin of Treinta y Tres, which we bishops made in the cathedral of Florida on November 11 last year. I say renewal, because that is what we did: to return to the consecration made by St. John Paul II in 1988, when he was among us. In all the dioceses there was a month of preparation, and it was an event of life and faith lived in all the communities. During this time of pandemic, via zoomWe celebrate especially the Solemnity of Pentecost, as I have already explained. 

The objective of the congress will be to "to procure a renewal of the faith of the people of God on pilgrimage in Uruguay, especially in the Eucharistic mystery".. Subject, Eucharist: Christ's sacrifice that saves the world. And the slogan, Take and eat: my Body given for you.

As you can see, we emphasize the sacrificial reality of the Eucharist. Here in Uruguay, as elsewhere, but in Uruguay in particular, the communitarian dimension of the Eucharistic celebration, which is obviously a key element for the life of the Church, which is by definition a very important part of the Eucharistic celebration, was very much emphasized in its time. "assembly convened". And the summoned assembly of the Church is fundamentally expressed in the Eucharist, but although I believe this is quite present in the faithful, the fact of Christ's sacrifice, that the Eucharist is the actualization of Christ's sacrifice, has remained very diluted in the Christian conscience. Therefore, we bishops have wanted to emphasize this dimension, without ignoring the other.

It is a time of pandemic everywhere, with all the peculiarities it implies for the life of faith. Uruguay has had a low number of infected people and deaths, how has the Church been present during this time?

-I am very happy, because when the pandemic started, it seemed that the night was coming upon us in several aspects. But here, unlike in other countries, the churches were never closed. Here they were able to remain open; what was not possible was to have celebrations that involved a convocation of the faithful, that depended on the parish priests or rectors of churches, if they kept them open.

There was a very nice experience. On Sundays the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament has been given to the neighborhoods, to the city; most of the priests did it and I believe that it brought its fruits. There was an immediate response in the social networks. The day after the confinement began, the Masses were already being transmitted through the platforms. And almost all parishes and institutions began to work in this way, as well as Catholic schools and universities. At the same time, there was a response from the faithful to continue collaborating economically, a concern that the priest should not lack anything; priests in Uruguay live very austerely, but no priest lacked what was necessary to live. 

All this speaks to us very well. And now, since June 19, which this year was the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, there was an enormous joy of the people when they returned to the celebration of the Masses; it has been very beautiful, there was really a longing to participate in the Eucharist.

Finally, what is the Church's response to the reality of a globalized world, very concerned about what this pandemic has left behind?

-The Church's response is the proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, trust in God, who ultimately leads history and, therefore, in sowing hope in people's hearts. The world has known other epidemics, obviously none in the globalized world like the present one; but well, epidemics in other times have passed, they have left their aftermath and this one will also leave them. 

It seems to me that the Church, to the extent that she is able to announce the risen Christ, Lord of history, close to us, is fulfilling her mission and encouraging a post-pandemic life more charged with hope, because undoubtedly a situation like the one we are living in leads to fundamental questions about life: the why, the what for, what is the meaning of pain, what is the meaning of our existence.

The situation of vulnerability and inequality affecting the Roma population was alarming before the arrival of the crisis generated by Covid-19. With data from 2018, the Comparative study on the situation of the gypsy population in Spain in relation to employment and poverty.The report noted that poverty and exclusion affect more than 80 % of Roma people, and that 46 % are extremely poor. Among minors, the child poverty rate is 89 %, and 51 % are extremely poor. 

In relation to employment, the study revealed the low presence of the Roma population in the labor market, marked by precariousness and weak protection, with an unemployment rate that reaches 52 % (which is more than 3 times that of the general population, 14.5 %) and where Roma women suffer a clear disadvantage, with an employment rate that only reaches 16 %.

Only 53 % of employed persons are salaried (more than 80 % for the general population), while self-employed persons represent 47% (less than 20% for the general population). Such a high incidence of self-employment is due to the prevalence of street vending, which continues to be the main work activity for Roma. With regard to the educational situation, only 17 % of the Roma population over 16 years of age have completed secondary education or higher, and 6 out of 10 Roma children do not complete compulsory secondary education. 

Finally, in Spain there are still more than 9,000 Roma families living in substandard housing without the minimum conditions of habitability (around 40,000 people). Of those 9,000 households, 2,273 are shantytowns in settlements (around 11,000 people), according to the Study-Map on Housing and the Roma Population, 2015 (see gitanos.org).

This crisis is placing large sectors of the Spanish gypsy population in a situation of serious lack of protection with regard to the enjoyment of their fundamental rights. Covid-19 has affected numerous gypsy families in several Autonomous Communities in its first attacks. 

Unprotected

Although at first the priority was to inform and promote health measures for prevention and containment, after the declaration of the State of Alarm in the country, we are facing a new and more complex scenario in which new social risks are combined with the health situation and the previous situation of high vulnerability of the gypsy population.

A good part of the gypsy families rely on street vending as their basic source of income, already precarious in itself. The closure of the street markets and the impossibility of carrying out other activities, such as collecting scrap metal, selling fruit, or other activities that provided some daily income, has left many families in a situation of social emergency, without any income, and with serious difficulties in accessing the aid provided by the Government for the self-employed. 

On the other hand, and despite the generalized image that Roma families are recipients of social benefits, only 32 % of very poor Roma households receive them. Particularly worrying is the situation in settlements, areas where there is little health protection and little presence of social services and public resources, and where, in addition, the health situation of the people, due to the health risk of the environment, involves previous pathologies and, therefore, they are a high-risk population. But the most pressing issue at this time is the lack of food and basic necessities such as medicines and hygiene products. 

Despite the resources made available by the Government to alleviate the social emergency that many people are experiencing, and the recommendations to direct them to the most vulnerable families, for various reasons, the aid is not arriving quickly enough. And we are seeing how there is a lack of food and basic necessities in many Roma households, already in very precarious conditions and extreme poverty. 

This crisis may also lead to an even greater increase in the level of school failure among gypsy students, already marked by the digital divide and educational inequality at the outset, and which is now becoming clearly evident. The closure of schools and institutes, on the other hand, has given way to a system that is based primarily on digital resources. 

Many Roma families have neither the necessary equipment nor the skills to use it. 

An effective response

Faced with the coronavirus crisis, the staff of more than 800 workers of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano is mobilized (teleworking and with face-to-face activity in some offices) from more than 60 locations throughout Spain, committed to providing an effective response to those most in need. Our priority is to be close to the most vulnerable people. Moreover, in these critical times, it is essential to continue with social promotion. "We have changed our communication channels, but our priority is to be close to the most vulnerable people." 

Since the beginning of the crisis, we have worked in two directions: reorienting the work of our teams to support and assist by telephone or telematic means the people with whom we work regularly in our programs; and secondly, making political impact, transferring to public administrations at all levels (state, regional and local) the urgent needs of many Roma families and offering concrete proposals to alleviate the effects of this crisis. 

Among other actions, the main thing is to be with the gypsy community. We are in permanent contact with the people who participate in our programs throughout Spain, via telephone, whatsapp, email, social networks... to know their needs and guide the possible solutions; as well as to send them all the information related to the protection and prevention measures that the health authorities have disseminated since the beginning of this crisis. 

We bring the available resources closer to you. We disseminate essential and reliable information from the authorities and help Roma people in need to access available resources (food aid, hygiene products, etc.). 

No one is left behind. We advocate local, regional and state governments to urgently take into account the needs of the most vulnerable population.

Job orientation is offered. Our counselors throughout Spain are informing about the new procedures and online procedures for the self-employed, unemployed and workers, people affected by ERTE, etc., and individual and group online training is being provided. Especially in this crisis, we are informing street vendors so that they can take advantage of the resources that have been put in place to alleviate the effects of the socio-economic crisis, and we are also making proposals to the Government so that they are not left out, such as the moratorium on the payment of debts to the Social Security.    

In addition, we continue to combat discrimination, anti-Roma hate speech and hoaxes, and to raise awareness in society through social networks and all our online communication channels. 

Survey of 11,000 Roma people

In order to quickly and systematically find out the situation of the households of the people participating in our programs, our teams conducted telephone interviews with almost 11,000 participants in our programs in 68 cities in 14 Autonomous Communities during the week of March 30 to April 3. 58 % of the surveys were conducted with women and 42 % with men. 15 % of the people surveyed were under 16 years of age (participants in our education or childcare programs), 46% were participants between 16 and 30 years of age, 21% between 30 and 40 years of age and 18% were over 40 years of age (adults are mainly participants in our employment programs or programs to combat poverty and exclusion). This is a valuable report because it is a good X-ray of the general situation of the Roma population at this time.

Main results

The main conclusion is that there is a low incidence of Covid-19 in Roma households (infections, deaths), but that the most pressing situation and the one that most worries families is that of to cover basic needs and food. This has never happened to Roma people before; confinement has an immediate effect on the livelihood of a large part of these Roma families, who live very much on a day-to-day basis and subsist on precarious, often irregular and unprotected activities. Moreover, contrary to what is sometimes thought, only one third of families in extreme poverty receive benefits such as minimum income.

Regarding access to basic needs, it should be noted that more than 40 % of respondents are having problems accessing food. Families are receiving help mainly from the extended family or the neighborhood (more than 40 %), followed by social entities or parishes (more than 30 %) and then by the local administration (city councils).

Social Emergency Fund

In addition to continuing with the social promotion work that we traditionally carry out, we have exceptionally launched the Social Emergency Fund. #TogetherWithGypsyFamilies to be able to respond to this social emergency by meeting the most urgent needs of thousands of Roma families.

The donations received by the Fund from individuals, companies and organizations are being transformed into vouchers for food and basic necessities such as medicines or hygiene products for the families who need them most. To make this possible, at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano we are reaching agreements with supermarkets to materialize this aid into cards that families can use to purchase food and basic necessities and channeling donations of equipment received from companies for those families most affected by the digital divide. 

Fundación Secretariado Gitano teams in 14 Autonomous Communities are already in contact with thousands of these families to detect their main needs and offer them the support they urgently require. The aid is distributed at the local level in the various offices that the Fundación Secretariado Gitano has in Spain. When it comes to handing out the aid, the following is being provided priority to the most disadvantaged families, i.e., those households with lower incomes and a greater number of dependent children.

Proposals to public authorities

Since the beginning of the crisis, our proposal to the administrations has been to act urgently, activating municipal social services to implement quickly and flexibly the Government's Recommendations for the most vulnerable settlements and neighborhoods, and to coordinate emergency aid and food delivery in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. In each of the cities where the Fundación Secretariado Gitano works, we have strengthened the dialogue with local, regional and state administrations to streamline processes and make ourselves available to channel and assist in the distribution of aid. 

In addition, we have requested emergency financial assistance for street vendors. The measures approved by the Government for the self-employed help to alleviate the situation of street vendors in part, but the criteria for their application exclude a number of people due to the requirement of being up to date with Social Security payments. For this reason, we ask that in these times of need, the criteria for receiving this aid be made more flexible. 

But more structurally, we have called for, and we welcome its approval, the implementation of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV), which guarantees sufficient income for the most vulnerable households. 

We believe that this mechanism can be the best tool to eradicate, as a priority, extreme poverty and reduce poverty.