ROME – Termini Station, located in the heart of the Italian capital, bustles with passengers from all over the world. Arrival times and destinations from all around Europe flicker on the timetables overhead. In addition to tourists and European business travelers, the station is a destination point for thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants who are now coursing through Europe.
Across the street from the busy station is the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, a parish that has made it a special mission to minister to some of those nomadic refugees. The religious community gives them language instruction, provides assistance with finding jobs and even much-needed recreation. In the courtyard of the church under a life size statute of Saint John Bosco, four men play a spirited game of table football. The men’s hands are moving quickly, with the handles of the plastic figures constantly hitting the ball. Within 10 seconds from the start of the new round, the ball is kicked by one of the figures into the goal. The men laugh as the game comes to a conclusion.
One of these players is Fallo Bah, a 22-year-old Muslim from Gambia. He and all of the men standing around the table are refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East.
“I arrived in Italy about a year and seven months ago,” Bah said. “I come to this church almost everyday.”
Bah, a former welder in Gambia, left Africa to escape the violence in his home country. He made the journey across the Mediterranean Sea almost two years ago hoping for a better life in Europe.
The church is run by the Society of St. Francis de Sales, popularly known as the Salesians. Members of the religious order follow the teachings of their society’s founder John Bosco, who taught his disciples to open their doors to the impoverished and to refugees.
“We wanted this house to be open to everyone,” said Maria Mercedes Guaita, a 42-year-old Salesian nun who lives at the church. “We first started by going across the street to the train station to give food to the homeless. We then wanted to help other youth and realized that refugees were the most defenseless.”
Many refugees travel to Rome through Termini Station. The station is known to be a popular location for migrants to gather, and due to Sacred Heart’s proximity to one of Europe’s largest railway hubs, it forced the church to face the refugee crisis firsthand.
Guaita leads an initiative to help refugees assimilate to life in Rome. The church, which has about 150 volunteers, provides several services to the immigrants including language instruction and assistance with finding jobs, among others. Sacred Heart provides Italian lessons for the refugees three days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. There are three levels of courses which range from Italian for beginners to more advanced classes.
Not only does the parish assist with the essentials for living in Italy, it provides assistance with becoming accustomed to the lifestyle of the country. This includes outings to the sea, mountains and other parts of Italy.
The church helps roughly 300 refugees on a regular basis. Many of the immigrants who utilize the resources at the Sacred Heart came to Italy illegally. A large number of them watched friends or relatives die on the journey.
Muslim refugees from Northern Africa sing about their native countries prior to attending their Italian language courses at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Rome. (Religio / Daniel Rodriguez)
“They say something that is very important to me,” Guaita said of refugees who have loved ones who perished on the journey to Europe. “Staying there is sure death. Trying to come here is probably death. So it’s better to attempt the passage here.”
Once a month, the parish also has an interfaith dialogue event where members of the Catholic community in Rome and refugees, who are mostly Muslim, share and discuss their religious traditions.
“We talk about how life is lived in the Christian faith and in the Muslim world,” Guaita said. “We read the Quran and bible and discuss certain passages and verses. For a lot of them, it’s shocking that Christians are actually helping them.”
Guaita said many of the refugees were taught to fear Christians in their home countries. Her parish’s goal is to make those initially scared to realize the community only wants to help them.
Sacred Heart is one of many Catholic communities in Italy responding to Pope Francis’s call last year for all Catholic parishes in Europe to assist refugees. The pope made the appeal in September, but some churches have been slow to take up the challenge.
In early April, the Pope did more than just preach about the need to help migrants. He went to the Greek island of Lesbos, where tens of thousands of refugees are stranded in their quest to get to Europe, and took action by taking a group of 12 Syrian refugees back with him to the Vatican. The Sant’Egidio Catholic community in Rome will care for the families, all of which are Muslim.
The migration crisis is hitting Italy especially hard. Since the European Union reached a deal with Turkey to curtail the number of refugees arriving in Greece, many leaders throughout the continent are questioning whether the number of migrants heading to Italy will increase. In 2014, figures from the Italian Ministry of Interior showed 170,000 asylum seekers arrived in the country, and many E.U. leaders expect that number to be passed this year.
Bah said he believes refugees are often mistreated and stereotyped because of the recent attacks throughout the continent over the last year.
“We don’t come here to do any nonsense or to be criminals,” Bah said. “We just come here to save our lives and to continue our lives. Sometimes others think we are bad people because of the extremists. They are not Muslims, they are criminals and they do what they want. We Muslims believe love for everybody. We believe in peace.”
About 30 minutes before Italian classes begin on a Tuesday night, Bah and a group of about a dozen refugees sit together in a common room singing a song about their native countries. A crucifix hangs directly across from them while they sing in English.
“I left my mother. I left my father. I left them far away….My home, I will never forget my home.”
As the men begin to head to their language courses, Bah credits Sacred Heart with helping him with his adjustment to life in Italy. He is grateful for all the assistance the Salesians have provided him.
“I just give them thanks, always,” he said. “Really, I’m not Christian but they are helping me. And I cannot pay them what God will pay them.”