People at the refugee center that Pope Francis will visit this coming Sunday are learning to seek a future, the director of the center told CNA Nov. 27.
“Pope Francis will come here because we are not a school, we are a refugee center, we are a center of learning that kids can use for the future. And they are searching for the future,” Fr. Andrés Calleja Ruiz emphasized.
A Salesian hailing from Madrid, Fr. Calleja has been directing the center, situated in the vicinity of the Holy Spirit Cathedral, for five years.
Previously, Fr. Calleja served in Indonesia, and he was chosen to go to Turkey for his “experience with the Muslim world.”
He will accompany the children hosted by the refugee camp to meet the Pope Dec. 30.
He recounted that “the Pope will meet with about 100 children, though we still have to decide whether he will come to us, or whether we will go to him.”
The refugee center is just behind the Holy See nunciature in Istanbul, a few steps from the Holy Spirit Cathedral where the Pope will sayMass Nov. 29.
The cathedral has been entrusted to Salesians since 1989, and – beyond the refugee center – they boast a youth center, a hospital, and a primary school.
“Most of the people coming here are Christians, but there are also Muslims, though they are quite a few. We welcome everybody, and everything is given for free. All our work is completely sustained by donations, which mostly come from foreign countries. The Catholic community is only 0.02 percent of the population, and it is very poor,” Fr. Calleja stressed…Read More
Source and Original Content by CNA