Parisian solidarity groups awaiting Pope’s visit

By Edoardo Giribaldi

“You must remain small.” In Paris, solidarity moves horizontally: it is not imposed from the pulpit but flows—like the Seine—from the heart of the city to the outskirts. It gathers young people and the homeless around the same table; both have known the same precariousness and exclusion. It offers a “café”—in the French sense rather than the Italian one: a meeting place rather than merely a beverage—offered “with open hands,” ready to receive something in return. By accepting this, a woman can speak without fear of judgment, emerging from dark, tangled tunnels of something like prostitution. Someone with no formal education can learn philosophy.

This commitment is becoming increasingly urgent in France as the presidential elections approach and the “rift” within the population widens, threatening to fuel hatred and discrimination. These are some of the commitments and concerns shared with Vatican News by representatives of various Parisian charitable groups—including the associations “Le Rocher” and “Lazare”—ahead of the Pope’s arrival in the French capital, where a visit to the Maison Bakhita Center for Social Support and Integration is scheduled. A delegation from the third group interviewed—“Aux captifs, la libération”—will also be present there.

Liberation for the prisoners

The name of this latter association—as its Director General, Thierry Desjuzeur, explains—alludes to the words of the prophet Isaiah, echoed in the Gospel, where Jesus says He came to “proclaim liberty to the captives.” This statement has taken concrete form in a project founded in 1981 by Father Patrick Giros, a priest of the Diocese of Paris who passed away in 2002; today, the organization comprises 400 volunteers and over 80 professionals across 15 locations.

Much has been said about “fractures,” and indeed, the lives of the people assisted by the association—some of whom will meet the Pope—have been marked by many such rifts: familial, social, and personal. “The fact that the Pontiff chooses to dedicate part of his time to these individuals is, in itself, a milestone in the journey of rebuilding their lives,” explains Desjuzeur, who hopes to highlight a fundamental aspect of their outreach. “We are not called primarily to reach out to the poorest to perform acts of charity or give material things, but rather to be the Church ‘with’ them and to build society ‘together’ with them.”

Empty-handed, offering heart and time

The fieldwork of “Aux captifs, la libération” translates into over 70,000 recorded encounters in 2025 alone with people who are homeless or involved in prostitution—nearly 4,500 of whom are known by name. These take the form of “maraudes”—patrols where volunteers approach “empty-handed,” meaning without bringing any material goods, even in challenging areas like the Bois de Boulogne: Yet, they hare something equally precious: “our time and our hearts.”

It is significant, the Director General notes, that “the dynamic of the relationship almost ends up reversing. We are the ones asking the people we meet if they have a few minutes to spare for us—to stop and talk. Ultimately, we find ourselves in the position of the one asking for something.” It is the bare hand that “can truly come into contact with the other”: in concrete terms, it is the hand with which we shake the hands of the people we meet.

The nighttime “patrols” of the Ad Aux captifs, la libération association in the Bois de Boulogne (photo by Marine Clerc)

Escaping the scourge of online prostitution

At “Aux captifs, la libération”, the organization recognized a scourge that—precisely because it is less visible than the plight of a needy person encountered on the street—often risks being overlooked: prostitution that is spreading today through contacts made on the Internet and social networks. Adopting an approach similar to their fieldwork, the organization reaches out to women and girls, often succeeding in establishing a connection with them. “We had the great joy of meeting the first person who came to us through this online channel; she is now following a path to leave prostitution behind. In a way, she grasped the hand we were holding out to her.” Prisoners who had escaped their own inner jails, ready to meet the Pope with hands that appeared empty, yet were actually free from the chains that had once paralyzed them.

Lazare: Shared living born of shared hardship

Timothée Barre, the association’s Delegate General, describes Lazare’s innovative integration model: “We organize shared living arrangements that foster solidarity between people who have lived on the street—the homeless—and young working people. About eight people live in each apartment, supported by a family that dedicates itself to the project.”

Launched 15 years ago, the project developed primarily in France—where it now operates numerous homes—but has also expanded internationally, opening locations in Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and Mexico. The core idea is to center the initiative on relationships between people from different backgrounds who nonetheless share the same hardships. This fosters bonds between equals: “a relationship that is not hierarchical in the slightest, unlike what might happen when visiting a specialist or a psychiatrist.”