JOURNEYS WITH A MONK

Children’s faces: beaming, sad, earnest and laughing. When the vibrant Franciscan monk Csaba Böjte is not behind the wheel of his car or talking on his cell-phone, he is usually surrounded by children. They belong to the Hungarian minority that lives in a former Hungarian part of Romania. Many of the people are impoverished because of the collapse of the iron and steel industries – the factories that used to employ 50,000 people now only have work for 4,000. They live under unimaginably difficult circumstances. Parents often cannot feed their children and have to go to the dump to illegally scrounge for iron – the only way to get food on the table. Again and again, the fathers have to go to prison for it, a vicious circle of misery and criminality that cannot be broken without outside help. The church has taken on social tasks in the formerly communist country. More than 400 children neglected by the state are cared for by Böjte and his colleagues. The boys and girls get their own bed in a heated dorm, decent meals, schooling, affection, and – they get baptized. Böjte estimates that it takes one Euro to feed and provide for a child for one day. He builds one children’s home after another, always on the road, talking to those in need. The first generation of children brought up in his homes has already grown up, finished their training and can now teach the children themselves – a symbol of hope.