The Vatican newspaper devoted the most prominent front-page coverage in its December 11 edition to the death of Mamadou, a 27-year-old migrant from Guinea who froze to death on Rome’s streets, as well as the death of a 78-year-old Italian man who froze to death in his car.

“Poverty, abandonment, psychic discomfort feed this parallel world, clearly visible but difficult to see,” in the words of the unsigned article, which praised the work of “the volunteers who bring the people of the street a hot meal, clothes, blankets and a little human warmth, to try to make these cold nights less hard. But sometimes, unfortunately, that is not enough.”