{"id":360,"date":"2015-03-07T22:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=360"},"modified":"2015-03-07T22:00:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T22:00:47","slug":"human-excrement-hosed-off-newvatican-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=360","title":{"rendered":"Human Excrement Hosed Off NewVatican Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"homeless<\/a>The Daily Beast reports on the new homeless-friendly Vatican state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is nearly 8 p.m. on a Tuesday in early March, and the Vatican is locked up for the night. A few stray tourists pose for pictures in front of the glistening basilica of St. Peter, and cassock-wearing clergy skim the perimeter of the square on their way home to dinner. In the shadows of the famous colonnade and extending to the foot of the grand boulevard known as the Via Conciliazione, dozens of men and a few women settle in for the night in Vatican-issued sleeping bags. They are the welcomed guests of Pope Francis, though not everyone in the neighborhood appreciates their presence. Joey, a Romanian who used to bed down in Rome\u2019s squalid Termini train station, moved to St. Peter\u2019s in late February. \u201cWe are all moving here,\u201d he told The Daily Beast. \u201cEveryone else spits on the homeless. But not here.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do they really spit on you everywhere else?<\/p>\n

After describing the new showers, other accommodations, and pro-homeless policing, the Beast\u2019s Barbie Latza Nadeau shifts to one of the local store owners.<\/p>\n

The generosity of the pope may be well received by those in need, but it is not without complications. Store owners along the Via Conciliazione have complained that the number of homeless people and beggars detracts from business and that every morning they have to forcibly remove those in the papal sleeping bags from their storefront steps. A woman at a religious trinket shop who asked that she not be named lest she upset the pope said his kindness was now a magnet attracting the city\u2019s poorest people. \u201cI don\u2019t want to group homeless people with pickpockets and thieves, but we have also seen an increase in petty crime here since the homeless moved in,\u201d she said. \u201cThere has to be a balance in finding the peace between those of us who pay a lot of rent to run our businesses here and those who cash in for free.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rent! They charge rent in the Vatican to store owners? And what about this other troubling reality: Is this money-grubbing business person saying that among people who can find no home that will take them, nor any productive work to do, there are more thieves and criminals? That\u2019s akin to saying that they tend to be more prone to other vices! Perhaps they\u2019ve grown accustomed to having large organizations give them things.<\/p>\n

Are these \u2018poor at the center of the Gospel\u2019 because they have nowhere to go, or because they may be in some ways lacking in Christian character and self-discipline? Are sinners at the center of the Gospel too? What about saints? Are they around the corner of the Gospel?<\/p>\n

There is also a logistical issue with the increase in street people. The city\u2019s charities and soup kitchens do a fine job feeding the poor, but there are very few public toilets for the homeless to use\u2014and a scant few that are open overnight\u2014which means that full corridors of side streets along the flanks of Vatican City are littered with human feces and drenched in urine. Street sweepers have acknowledged that they now spray down full sections of the areas around St. Peter\u2019s Square every morning before the tourists arrive.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the center of the Holy Catholic Church is now covered in human excrement. Is there some deep spiritual significance to this?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Daily Beast reports on the new homeless-friendly Vatican state. It is nearly 8 p.m. on a Tuesday in early March, and the Vatican is locked up for the night. A few stray tourists pose for pictures in front of the glistening basilica of St. Peter, and cassock-wearing clergy skim the perimeter of the square …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}