Taking a shower and washing laundry is not a matter of course. For many, it is inaccessible.
In the shantytown of San Ferdinando, the seventh Laundry of Pope Francis, with attached shower service, was inaugurated on Nov. 27, 2024, after Rome, Genoa, Turin, Naples and Catania.
Among the shacks of the San Ferdinando ghetto, where hundreds of African migrants – Senegal, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and other parts of Africa – wait for a residence permit by working in the fields, dignity becomes a primary issue. It is not just about washed blankets or a place to cool off, but a powerful message: no one is forgotten, no one is excluded.
A tangible sign on the same day was the distribution of some 200 meals to migrants in the Tendopoli, prepared by volunteers from the parish of Mary Most Holy of Porto Salvo, at the diocesan canteen at the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide.
