According to José Traquina, studies have been succeeding and we are "in this certainty that a better balance is necessary", which is why "those who have responsibilities in the governance and management of the country and institutions (...) require that the balance of income among the Portuguese be better and not so distant". "We live, perhaps, in one of the countries in Europe where the difference in people's income is greater, and this generates difficulties", which, he says, "have not been attenuated". According to the president of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral and Human Mobility, "there has been growth in economic stability for the country in the international image, but in social well-being this has no correspondence, which raises questions of governance, of how things are oriented". Bishop José Traquina warns, in an interview with the Lusa agency, of the need to make a reading of the global situation of income imbalances in Portugal, to find consistent solutions and "not just to help people, but [who remain] always in a [situation of] dependency without leaving that situation". The prelate does not hide his discomfort when, when analyzing the Portuguese situation, he finds that "there are people who are poor - within that number of two million people at risk of poverty or in poverty, or even in severe poverty -- [but] who work, who have income, but that income is insufficient for the family's expenses, for people's expenses". From the outset, he argues that "work should be valued, those who work should be valued", in order to increase their income. The situations of social imbalance in the country have led to an increase in the demand for help from the Church's solidarity institutions -- such as Caritas, Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (IPSS) or Misericórdias -, which "creates difficulties", leading these organizations to be unable to respond to everything. In the case of IPSS, the difficulties also stem from the impossibility of users, or their families, "at a certain point, not having the capacity to correspond to what is their participation" in the expenses of a person who is in an institution "and who has a calculated cost". "A study by the Catholic University of Porto calculated exactly that the State's participation was 38% of the expenses of a person in an institution. What the Minister of the previous Government [Ana Mendes Godinho] had in mind was that the State's participation would reach 50%", recalls José Traquina, recognizing that, even if this idea of the ex-governor had gone ahead, "people are not able, by themselves, to collaborate with the other 50%". This situation leads the institutions to seek support in society, which does not prevent "many from reaching November [of each year] in enormous distress, not knowing how they are going to pay the Christmas bonus, how the end of the year will be". "Sometimes it happens that at the last minute, a decision comes from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to then dispatch a fraction, a support, a decision that allows them to breathe and pay the employees, the collaborators of the institution", says the bishop. In this chapter, the president of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral states that, "sometimes, the difficulties are because the institution is very large, other times because it is very small. If it is very small, it does not have the scale to solve, and sometimes it is more difficult. And it is also different if an institution is in the interior of the country or in a large city in the country. And the State's contributions are the same, but the reality is not the same". And this is one more reason to argue that the Government, whatever it may be, "must have the design of the balance of society" as one of its objectives. "Does [the Government] want a society that effectively wants to do justice and wants a global evolution of the country, of all people, or does it simply want to have a high, stable or evolving economy, but always leaving more poor people behind?", questions the bishop, emphasizing that "there are academics, there are prepared people, studies done, we know how to identify the problems and there are even people who academically know how to point out solutions". Therefore, for José Traquina, "the Government can reach out to people trained in a certain subject, even linked to the economy, to respond to these situations, prepared people", never forgetting that "not all people were born with the same capacity for development, but they also have the right to live". Also Read: Fonte dos Granjinhos in Braga is a monument of municipal interest (Portuguese version)