Both better and worse (10/04/05)

"And so," says Father Klaus, "what do you think, after seven years, of our Moldova?"

We are sitting in his kitchen, the remains of lunch laid out before us. The house hasn't changed much since 1999 when I last visited. Chickens - which had helped provide the soup - still peck in a caged section of the garden. Tomatoes, which we had enjoyed with the salad, grow nearby.

"I think," I say, "it's both better and it's worse."

Father Klaus nods.

In the years since I last visited this tiny country that was once a part of the Soviet Union, the economy has improved in many ways. There are more goods on the store shelves. There are more retail outlets in Chisinau, the capital. And dozens of new restaurants have opened.

But the economy has been driven by the exodus.

In the past seven years, an estimated 20 percent of the population has left this country. One out of five has left for work in Western Europe or America. Many of the women have taken housekeeping jobs in Italy; many of the men are doing construction work in Portugal.

And they send money home.

So Chisinau is looking pretty prosperous, though the country's villages are under stress. The human capital leaves the village, while the financial capital stays in the big city.

Father Klaus nods, agreeing with the rough outline of my assessment.

As parish priest in Stauceni, a village that's a virtual suburb of the capital, he's very familiar with the day to day realities of the situation.

And he's been busy over the past seven years coming up with new solutions for the problems faced by his parishioners and his community.

When Connie and I first visited Klaus in 1998 with our English friend Peter Coates, the priest was operating a free lunch cantina, a soup kitchen. With Peter's help, 13 or 14 others had been established in similar villages around the country.

By most standards, that would have been chalked up as a remarkable accomplishment.

But Father Klaus hasn't stopped there.

Instead, he has kept on meeting the needs of his parish and his community.

A social services building has been erected that houses a kindergarten, a home health care clinic, and a large public meeting room.

Health care staff from the clinic go out to another four or five villages on a regular basis, focusing on the elderly, the handicapped, and the infirm. Staff members bring them in for treatment, an occasional doctor visit, and basic hygiene.

Twenty to 30 kids are served by the kindergarten, and the meeting room is used for everything from wedding receptions to wakes.

Support has come from Caritas, Catholic Relief Services, and the German government. Klaus is German, and Stauceni once had a sizable German population.

Just down the street, there's an NGO (non-governmental organization) running the Moldovan equivalent of a developmental center, helping kids with learning disabilities and mental handicaps. They're operating on a shoestring, but they are operating.

Meanwhile, Father Klaus is directing the construction of a homeless shelter to provide temporary housing for the most destitute of the village's residents.

And as if all that were not enough, he's launching a micro-loan program to help create new business ventures in an effort to stem the tide of migration out of the country.

As usual for Moldova, the challenges are enormous.

But if Father Klaus ever finds them daunting, he never lets it show.

With gentle optimism and constant faith, he simply keeps moving forward for the people of this adopted country he has come to love.[[In-content Ad]]