Living Solidarity: St. Pöltner Fasting supports worldwide projects

Living Solidarity: St. Pöltner Fasting supports worldwide projects

St. Pölten, Österreich - The diocese of St. Pölten starts its traditional fasting campaign with great energy under the motto "Live in solidarity". By Easter, around 150,000 environmentally friendly paper cubes are distributed in the parishes as collective boxes. This campaign aims to support disadvantaged people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Austria. The income should enable the construction and financing of projects in the areas of health, education, pastoral and creation responsibility, as the St. Pöltner church newspaper "Church Color" reports. Marianne Ertl, the managing director of the campaign, emphasizes: "The fasting campaign is a lively sign of charity."

Promotion of sustainable projects

A special focus this year is on the preservation of creation, since the diocese celebrates the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis' environmental and social cyclical "Laudato Si". The donations are used to support a DON Bosco school project for climate protection measures in India and a pastoral project for holistic ecology in Peru. In addition, funds flow into an environmental project in Tanzania that finances training for the biological cultivation of agricultural products. The fasting campaign is a long -term tradition that was carried by the whole diocese since its foundation by the then diocesan bishop Franz Zak in 1963, and it remains an indispensable part of the voluntary commitment in the region today, as the website of the fasting campaign informs.

In the last fasting campaign 2024, 31 projects in the regions mentioned have already been funded with a total of around 517,000 euros, which underlines the reach and importance of this initiative. The specially developed paper cubes have replaced the earlier plastic variants and show how important environmental awareness is also in social responsibility, how many reports on the fasting campaign emphasize.