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I am very pleased to be in this August City today, and to attend the commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Braga Holy Almshouse. I am also very grateful for having been distinguished with the title of Honorary Brother, as just now announced by the Provost.

How many institutions have the privilege to celebrate 500 years of age, as has been the case with the Portuguese Almshouses?

Centenary institutions, generated by the initiative of a Queen, the Almshouses are, in a major number of cases, the work of laymen congregated within their Brotherhoods.

They are the work of men of goodwill, from the towns and cities of Portugal, which cover all of the national territory and greatly honour our history as a People.

Notwithstanding the covetousness that targeted them and the many misunderstandings recorded in these five centuries of history, the Portuguese Almshouses were able to overcome all those difficulties and, in our days, have shown themselves as actual and as indispensable as was the case when they were founded.

It is precisely in the more adverse environments that the nature of men and their institutions are best proven.

In the difficult times that Portugal is going through, when unemployment reaches distressing dimensions (838 thousand), in which poverty and social exclusion situations are spreading, in which so many families are witnessing falls in income and indebtedness that they cannot cope with, in which conflicts within families and the new poor are multiplied, it is only fair to recognize the extraordinary work carried out by the Almshouses and other Private Institutions of Social Solidarity and thousands of volunteers in the support to those that are most vulnerable in our society.

The History of Braga Holy Almshouse has a myriad instances of unselfishness and solidarity shown by our People.

We recall Friar D. Bartolomeu dos Mártires, Archbishop of Braga and Provost of the Almshouse who, during the 1570 plague denied the requests from the King himself to abandon the city.

As recorded in the annals of those days, he himself visited the sick, providing for their cure or administering the Last Rites.

It is the action, the labour and the memory of the women and men of goodwill that confer a strong identity to the Portuguese Almshouses and that justify their existence of many centuries.

It is the duty of rulers to know how to interpret at each moment the role of these institutions, to take advantage of this powerful feeling of solidarity of the civil society to respond to the challenges of poverty, which threatens today more than two million Portuguese, to attend to the social groups that are more vulnerable to sickness, deficiency or age limitations, and to the children at risk of exclusion or victims of physical or psychological violence.

Mister Mayor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Late this morning I visited the Monastery of St. Martin of Tibães, that jewel of our religious architecture, which is experiencing a new life after its magnificent refurbishment.

The diversity of tourism in our country and in a region so richly endowed with monasteries and churches of great beauty and interest, has a crucial role in local and regional economic development and can attract many thousands of tourists every year.

Braga is not reaching out to the past, but is turned towards the future. Minho University, which has done so much to develop the region, boosts the city and places it in the fulcrum of the world of knowledge and innovation.

The people of Braga benefit from an enviable network of physical, technological and scientific infrastructures.

We find here the spirit of youth, which is evidenced by the readiness to answer the challenges of the present and the needs of the future.

A city that, far from being a slave of its heredity, shows so many signs of youthfulness that it can assert itself as a true centre of knowledge and of enterprising talents, as a pole of attraction for investment, and can thus clearly contribute for the economic recovery of our country and for the creation of employment.

Mister Mayor,
Mister Provost of the Braga Almshouse,

Local authorities and institutions such as Almshouses perform, in our society, a particular role into bringing dynamics to an economically and socially fair development. A role that I am certain they will continue to achieve.

Our citizens are well aware that these are demanding times, but pursuing knowledge, innovation, creativity and inducing investment, together with the contribution of social institutions in supporting the less favoured, may aid us to overcome these difficult times we are going through.

In this moment of new economic, cultural and social challenges, Braga’s example can be extremely encouraging.

I end with a very special greeting to the Braga Holy Almshouse and to the members of the Brotherhood, but also to the users and all the institution’s workers, on their many years of history and labour.

Hopefully Braga’s and Portuguese Almshouses will continue the to practice their sacred mission of goodwill with the more fragile members of our society and to help improve the living conditions of the Portuguese.

My best thanks for all you are achieving.