“The soup is a declaration of support cooked with love.” With this sentence, Vicar General Severin Lederhilger summed up the idea of the family fast day. At yesterday’s charity soup dinner in the Landhaus in Linz, students from the Bad Leonfelden Tourism School served wild garlic, cream and cabbage soup – cooked by the Mascher brewery inn and the Sommerhaus Hotel. Donations are matched by the state. Host Thomas Stelzer (VP) supports the campaign in favor of 70 projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa to “make the world better and fairer”.
How does coexistence succeed?
According to Paula Wintereder, chairwoman of the Upper Austrian Catholic Women’s Movement (kfb), the question is: “How do we want to live together, across national borders?” With the Philippines, the focus this year is on a country that has to cope with a high rate of labor migration. More than 5,000 people leave the country every day, and ten percent of the population work abroad. One must not only take care of the well-being of the emigrants, but also of the children left behind. Because many grow up with grandparents while the mother works abroad. Inorisa Sialana-Elento, representative of one of the Philippines projects, thanked kfb for its commitment: “We feel that we are not alone.”
The topic of caring – also known as care work – is a special concern for the Catholic women this year. This refers to sectors such as education, health, care or childcare. “If care work is done for profit, those affected who need it are left behind,” said Wintereder. The event, moderated by Michaela Leppen (Women of the Diocese of Linz), was accompanied by music from the folk & pepper group.
People all over the country cook and eat “good soup” in many respects on the occasion of the family fasting day, as Lederhilger noted. The fundraising campaign has now been in existence for 65 years. In Upper Austria, 3,000 women are working on the project, and in 2022 37,000 liters of soup were cooked for a good cause.
author
Dietlind Hebestreit
Dietlind Hebestreit
