In Limoges, this solidarity café is open to all

At the Parvis des Clarisses, that afternoon, regulars play cards, tourists watch the programming, a volunteer directs a visitor to one of the associations that operate permanently in this place. In Limoges (Haute-Vienne), at the foot of the cathedral, the chapel of the former convent of the Poor Clares had long had a walled-up door. From now on, it opens every afternoon into the warm space of a solidarity café. Axelle Poisson is the coordinator and tells how the building has once again become a lively and useful space. “The diocese wanted, on the one hand, to offer a response to the isolation and precariousness of certain residents of the city center and, on the other, to offer a place for youth ministry. »

For two and a half years, the old chapel has housed a shared accommodation of students and their chaplaincy, an oratory, a multi-purpose room and the café, the essential place through which one enters the Parvis. The other buildings of the convent house a community of Franciscans and a twenty-unit guesthouse, managed by an association. “Regulars have created a community here,” notes Axelle: a gentleman who had been standing aside has taken his place at the belote players’ table and is now offering coffee to the newcomers. “We ask for news from those to whom no one ever asks. We take care of each other. » There are many volunteers and friendship with those who have been tested by life brings us back to basics. “We realize that we are not alone, that we can support each other. It helps me to keep going in painful moments and gives me the desire to continue,” confides Axelle. What she experiences in this place nourishes her prayer.

A prayer box

Many people leave prayers in a box near the entrance. Each week, they are taken up for a time of adoration in the oratory before being entrusted to the Carmel of Limoges. The life of the Court thus nourishes the Church. The priest holds coffee there on Tuesdays. Until his departure for the diocese of La Rochelle, Mgr Pierre-Antoine Bozo rested there for a moment on his way home. Axelle sees that volunteers and friends of the place are beginning a spiritual path. As a regular told her: “Here, the peace we feel is different. She comes from somewhere else. »