On Saturday 11 January the COMECE General Secretary, Father Patrick H. Daly, paid a visit to the offices of CARITAS Greece at 52 Kapodistriou Street in downtown Athens.
Temporary Kara Tepe refugee camp with UNHCR tents in Lesbos island, Greece. (Photo: Nicolas Economou/Shutterstock)
He was received by Father Andreas Voutsinos (Director CARITAS Greece), Nikos A. Voutsinos, responsible for the Refugee Programme and Evelyn Karastamati, Coordinator of the ELPIS Project. He was fully briefed on the work of CARITAS for the “new poor” of Greece as well as its multiple out-reach work, with slender resources, for refugees and immigrants seeking asylum, many of whom are to be found in central Athens.
He visited the CARITAS offices as well as the refugee centre, aware of how the legal problems which characterise life for the Catholic Church in Greece make the practical philanthropic ministry of CARITAS that much more difficult.