Hard Life
The nine Catholic families who were forced to move to Somesheni have remained true to their faith, but they say they often feel abandoned.
�Caritas helped us immediately after the fire when we lived in the underground shelter, but we never see them anymore,� said Cristian Tsuli, who earns $75 a month as a street cleaner. At the local market, this meager income affords him a daily ration of two loaves of bread, a liter of milk, a stick of butter and a half-pound of meat with which to feed his family of five.
The Tsuli family and others in the compound compensate by rummaging through city garbage bins.
�It is not our responsibility. It is not the Catholic duty but the government who must help them,� Catholic Charities� Stolz said. �Yes, it is true, it [the Catholic Church] is their Church, but only for the moment. Later they go to the other churches and say we are Baptist or Pentecostal because they have this style.�
Some of the Roma Catholics admit that financial aid could induce them to convert.
�Look, I am not stupid � we have been stuck here for two years. We have children here and if someone offered help I need to accept,� said Elekesh, who complained about being unable to get out the door for work in the morning because of the bodies sleeping on the floor.
The Elekesh family currently numbers 12, packed into an 8-by-12 metal container with two beds. They will be 13 by day�s end, when a daughter-in-law and her newborn return from the hospital.
Their neighbor Karoly Czanka, who has worked as a puppet artist at the theater, says he would not convert.
�I am Catholic,� he said. �My mother was Catholic and her mother.�
Czanka�s wife �La- La� can�t speak or hear, but through signs she manages to explain that the hunger is not so discomforting so long as she has paper and pen to sketch. Her husband scolds her because she burns her drawings for heat.
At the 700-year-old Calvary Catholic Church on the other side of the city, Father Istvan Kadar considers the Gypsies in his congregation good Catholics who receive the sacraments and attend church like everyone else.
The parish�s 10 Gypsy families belonged to the Ligurari tribe (spoon makers) but are a part of the growing number of Roma who no longer refer to themselves as Roma or Gypsy � though everyone else does.
�They are not a problem,� Father Kadar said.
But after a pause and slight grin he added: �Well, we have a little problem with them on the Day of the Dead. Gypsies don�t mourn death. They play music at their funerals and during this day while everyone sits quietly and prays, the Gypsies travel all along the road to the church singing and dancing. � But this is their tradition, and we have to respect that.�
Chuck Todaro is based in Romania, where he is researching Roma issues and culture. He can be contacted at [email protected]