The Misericordia District is an initiative of the Archdiocese of Bogotá promoted in April 2023 and covers the center of the Colombian capital, “one of the most vulnerable sectors,” as pointed out by El Catolicismo, an archdiocesan media outlet.
In statements reported by the media, Father Jorge Eliécer Arias Toro, animator of the Archdiocesan Coordination for the Care of Human Dignity and director of the Domus Colombia Foundation, explains that this area “presents many problems of all kinds.”
“There is moral poverty, physical poverty. There are many elderly people in abandonment, substance abuse, therefore, many street dwellers, displaced people, migrants, children and out-of-school youth,” adds the priest.
In response, the Archdiocese of Bogotá has launched new initiatives and promoted existing ones to serve the population in need, with the support of religious congregations and lay people.