The Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) has set up an unprecedented loan security fund to help families who have lost all sources of income due to the economic crisis. The 30-million-euro fund, financed by parishioners' donations in an accord with the Italian Banking Association (ABI), will provide security for loans worth 300 million euros.
Families with three or more children or those supporting a sick member will be able to apply for loans, and immigrant and non-Catholic families are equally eligible.
''This isn't charity for the poor but a measure that respects people's dignity, permitting them to pay back what they have received at a fixed rate to be decided and whenever it is possible for them,'' said CEI Secretary-General Msgr Mariano Crociata.
The Catholic Church was aware ''of the gravity and extent of the financial and economic crisis under way'', Msgr Crociata said.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 families will be able to benefit from the loans, which will be paid out at a rate of 500 euros a month for no longer than a year.
Loans may be extended if the family has not found a new source of income within 12 months.
The security fund will be financed by a national collection to take place in all Italian churches on May 31 as well as donations made by bank transfer so that even non-believers can show ''solidarity'', Msgr Crociata added.
He said the nation-wide initiative will flank similar projects already under way in many Italian dioceses.
The new loans will be arranged through local centres of Catholic aid group Caritas.
Families in which parents are unmarried will not be eligible for the loans. Rocco Buttiglione, president of the centrist UDC Catholic party, praised the initiative, saying it ''made (him) proud to be Catholic and embarrassed to be Italian''.
''This is something the government and parliament should have done,'' he said.
Carlo Giovanardi, the government's pointman on family affairs, said the government had set up an ''analogous initiative'' to institute a 25-million-euro loan security fund in an emergency anti-crisis decree at the end of 2008.
That fund was aimed at helping people cope with spending following the birth of a child, he said.
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(Source: ANSA)