Despite the fact that almost no actual Catholics have ventured to Rome to float through the MercyDoor, there is some FrancisMercy-related news in the secular Italian media. In the off-year Holy Jubilee, for some reason Roman loafers think it’s time to occupy other people’s homes for free.
Rome (AFP) – Italian police clashed with squatters in central Rome Tuesday during a housing rights demonstration, with protesters saying evictions should be put on hold during Pope Francis’s “Year of Mercy”.
Uniformed and plain-clothes officers scuffled with members of RAM, the acronym of the Metropolitan Housing Resistance group which organised the protest, and its spokesman said nine people had been detained.
Demonstrators held a sit-in atop scaffolding on a building opposite Rome’s prefecture and hung banners reading “Stop evictions” and “We are not terrorists”.
At least they’re not terrorists. Do you think some of them might be Muslim ‘refugees’? It doesn’t matter. Whoever they are, they have a perfect understanding of FrancisMercy, much clearer than the most sophisticated faux-Catholic FrancisApologist. Whether it’s earthly goods or God’s pardon, FrancisMercy just means expecting to be given something for which you have no right.
In the street below, some 100 Italians and foreigners called for Rome to address a growing housing crisis.
“Every day there are between 30 and 50 families in Rome put out on the street,” said Omero Lauri, 51, RAM spokesman.
“The situation has got much worse recently with the excuse of terrorism,” he said, with fears of jihadist violence since the Paris attacks last year leading to heightened concerns over undocumented people living off the radar.
But Alejandro Moncada from Equador, 35, said security issues were just an excuse to intensify evictions.
“The irony is that it is the pope’s Year of Mercy,” he said, in reference to a special Jubilee year called by Francis from December 8, during which pilgrims are urged to dedicate more time to merciful acts and helping the disadvantaged.
“This year should be about helping the weak, not treating us like terrorists,” said the father-of-one, who has been in Italy for 12 years along with his wife and parents, but struggles to find work as a cleaner.
Is every bum in Europe now being confused with a terrorist? If you get evicted for mooching off your landlord is that counter-terrorism? Does being generally useless and broke mean you’re weak? Is this ‘cleaner’ who’s been unemployed for ten years someone else’s fault?
Catholic religious adherence and worship are acts of justice to God, who is both merciful and just. As leader of the Catholic faith, the Pope is supposed to teach us how to treat God and each other with justice and love. What are we supposed to do and why? What is the pathway to follow Christ? Instead, the FrancisEffect encourages bums to make unjust demands on others and think it’s moral. They learn to flout, hurt, and ignore God, then presume he’s ready to welcome them into Heaven with open arms.
Property and Catholic doctrine are twin enemies of the current man in white.
You make a good point that I never talked about: showing justice to God. “Enough of the rights of man and more about the rights of God.” This was a rallying call of Archbishop Lefebvre and one that should be taken up anew by the Pope, not political and economic concerns, which actually could be better solved by reminding the rich and the poor on their duties to God and thus their duties to each other as a result.
When one gives justice to God first justice to others naturally results.