A parish under the Archdiocese of Bangalore has decided to follow a new set of ten commandments as part of its observation of the Year of the Poor.

The Don Bosco Church in Bengaluru, capital city of Karnataka State, will follow a simple lifestyle, avoid culture of waste, educate poor children, feed the hungry, heal the sick, support the imprisoned, welcome immigrants, provide shelter to the homeless and show concern for the differently abled and the marginalized and offer employment opportunities to the poor. Father Aloysius Santiago, the pastor, said these moves are the Salesian parish’s response to a circular from Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore that declared 2020 as the Year of the Poor.

Father Santiago, his assistants Fathers Stanley George, James Sunder and Sunder joined lay and youth representatives to light the lamp as a symbol of opening the year. Father Sunder read out the action plan containing the ten commandments proposed by the archbishop to be observed during the year.

In his homily the parish priest asked people to follow the archbishop’s directives to alleviate poverty in the parish. He also urged the people to help him educate girl children from the new academic year. He said the presence of the Catholic community in the slums near by the parish is to radiate God’s goodness to the people. He said children should not be deprived of quality education because they are poor. The inauguration ended with the recitation of the prayer for the Year of the poor as given in the circular.

Archbishop Machado, in a recent circular, exhorted all to imbibe the spirit of Saint Joseph as whose feast falls on March 19. He expressed the hope the foster father of Jesus would “certainly inspire us to reach out to the poor and marginalized, especially in this Year of the Poor in our Archdiocese.”

St Joseph is referred to as the patron of the poor. Though poor, the saint is referred in the Bible as a “just man,” a man who did justice to everybody, both in his role as the head of the Holy Family and as a man of dignity who was proud of his poor profession.