HEAD of Missionaries of the Poor, Father Richard Ho Lung, says the church is not doing enough to reach out to the less fortunate.

"As church people, we need to start looking at ourselves more like bothers and servants of the poor [rather than people in authority]," Ho Lung said Thursday.

He was speaking at the official opening of the Jesus Redeemer Monastery at the corner of East and Charles streets in downtown Kingston.

"The building is an outreach for the homeless and destitute and people of the streets who have no where to go," Ho Lung later told the Jamaica Observer.

The renovation of the building, according to Father Ho Lung, was made possible through a donation from the German Embassy. Germany, he said, is among the countries that provide the most assistance to the charity.

Meanwhile, Ho Lung said the opening of the Monastery coincides with the seventh anniversary of the death of two trainee priests — Suresh Barwa from India and Marco Laspuna from the Philippines.

The two died from injury from a single stray bullet.

It was reported then that the bullet hit both men in the head — passing first through one then the other — as they stood in the kitchen cleaning up after supper.

The Missionaries of the Poor, which was founded by Ho Lung, cares for over 500 homeless and destitute people in five centres in downtown Kingston.

Yesterday Josef Beck, German Ambassador to Jamaica, said he was pleased to be associated with the initiative.

"We are not just pleased at the German Embassy to help to do something good but we are also honoured to co-operate with Father Ho Lung and his Missionaries of the Poor," Ambassador Beck said.