What does it mean to be responsible for another person? For a group of Senior 5 students from St Paul’s Missionary College, this question took a deeper and more tangible form during their recent experience in Rome: serving a meal, clearing a table, listening to someone, and doing the work that others were depending on them to do.
Accompanied by MSSP priests and College staff, the students spent five days in Rome over their mid-term holidays. Their voluntary experience with Caritas Rome reiterates a commitment being developed within the College through its Behaviour Policy, centred on “My brother’s keeper, my responsibility.” The experience allowed the student volunteers to put all the more in practice the ability to be aware of the other, recognise needs, and take responsibility for their own response and actions.
Much of their service took place in doing voluntary acts alongside the Caritas Roma teams, where the students distributed food, cleaned trays, cleared tables and helped welcome the hundreds of guests who come to the canteens each day. The students also helped with Banca dei Talenti, an outreach initiative of the Salesian community at Sacro Cuore, near Termini Station. Its volunteers bring food and drinks to people living on the surrounding streets, placing particular importance on conversation, listening and building relationships.
These were ordinary tasks, sometimes repetitive and tiring. That was part of their value. A table needed clearing because someone else was waiting to sit down. A task needed finishing because another volunteer was relying on it. Responsibility meant being attentive and dependable, including when the initial excitement had worn off.
The encounters with guests gave these tasks a deeper meaning. These volunteering initiatives place the dignity of each person at the centre of their work. A meal offers nourishment, but the way it is served matters too. A greeting, a patient response or a willingness to listen can help someone feel welcomed and respected. The students were invited to look beyond the label of homelessness and encounter the person before them, whose story they could never assume to know.
This is also the intention behind the College’s Behaviour Policy. Being my brother’s keeper asks students to consider how their actions affect the people around them. It involves noticing who is left out, treating shared spaces with care, offering help without always waiting to be asked, and recognising when their behaviour makes life harder for someone else. In Rome, the connection between a personal choice and its effect on another person became immediate and concrete.
Alongside their voluntary experience, the students visited Rome’s historic and religious sites, including the Vatican, and celebrated Mass together with students and staff from the Archbishop’s Minor Seminary. Once again, sharing this experience with students from the Seminary also created opportunities for friendship, cooperation and reflection. Living and working as a group brought its own invitations to patience, generosity and consideration.
Rooted in the missionary spirit of the MSSP, the experience aimed to bring faith into the students’ daily choices. Its lasting value will depend on how that responsibility continues at home and at school: in the way they speak to a classmate, respond to someone struggling, or carry out a task entrusted to them. Rome gave them a place to practise. The invitation to be their brother’s keeper continues.
Support through Erasmus+ KA122 School Education helped make this experience possible, allowing students to put the College’s values into practice through service.