An Idea For the Pope Regarding The Homeless

The Vatican is getting into the hairdressing business, it seems, according to recent reports: it will provide a free hair-cutting service for the homeless of Rome. Very good. That will go well with the showers that are being installed near St Peter's Square.  However, I think we can do better than that. 

I was talking with a friend of mine who also studied in Rome and he told me that the Holy See owns a lot of apartments around the city which are standing empty. Meanwhile she has some large buildings in which members of the Curia live - Domus Sancta Martha being one, but I believe there is another one down towards the end of the Via di Conciliazione which is mostly empty. My friend suggested that it might be good idea if the priests in the Curia would be allowed move into the apartments, and then take one of the large buildings and turn it into a house for the homeless? That house would be on Vatican territory, so the Holy See would not be hampered by unwieldy Italian/EU legislation etc. There are plenty of priests and religious in the city who could assist in running it and the Holy Father could pop down now and again to offer Mass there. 

The house could also serve as a drop-in centre for those homeless who prefer to live on the streets. Basic medical care could be provided, as well as the showers and the hair-dressing service. Now I know the Church has countless houses and support agencies for the homeless in Rome and around the world and many dining rooms and drop-in centres, but what a wonderful symbol this house would be - in the heart of the Church, on Vatican territory, and a marvellous legacy from a Pope whose first concern in his Pontificate has been the poor. To be honest, while they are nice gestures, the showers and now the hair cuts seem paltry in comparison with what could be done. 

Just an idea.

Vatican Matters

I am a little disturbed by some news coming from Vatican City: it seems there will be a halt to hiring new workers and a pay freeze is to be put in place.  The country is tightening its belt because of financial pressure.  That's fair enough - if the money is not there, then measures have to be taken.  But I do have to question these measures (remember Vatican workers are not the best paid in the world) when the Holy Father has engaged a number of top consultancy firms to help him reform the Curia and carry out other tasks. These firms are charging the Vatican top dollar rates for their services.  

There is also the issue of the car park on the Italian side of the Italian/Vatican border which is situated just under the Domus Sancta Martha.  Because the Pope is not living in the secure Apostolic Palace but in the Domus, part of the security arrangements was to close off the car park (for fear of car bombs), to the fury of Roman locals who use it, and pay parking fees for every hour of every day every week.  That is bleeding thousands from Vatican coffers. I have been told that the locals are taking the Vatican to court to get their car park back.  Anyone who has lived in Rome will know how difficult it is to get parking space and locals are desperate to get a space within walking distance of their apartments. How can the Vatican defend restrictions on loyal workers when so much money is being wasted?  

Perhaps such issues will fall to Cardinal George Pell as he now heads a new department within the Curia to regulate financial matters, the Secretariat for the Economy.  This is part of the reform process, and a most welcome development.  It is in reality a department of finance and with Cardinal Pell running it, it will be in good hands.  Of course the Cardinal will be coming to Rome to run the Secretariat.  While that is good in one way, he will be a serious loss to the Church in Australia. Cardinal Pell has been a strong advocate for reform and fidelity in Australia, and I am sure orthodox Catholics and priests will miss him should he have to leave.  Australia's loss will be the Church's gain as having him in Rome will certainly be a bonus for the cause of authentic renewal.  But I would urge him to tackle the car park issue.

John Allen, now working for the Boston Globe, addresses the issue of a repeat of '68 - the Humanae Vitae crisis, following October's synod on the family.  You may remember I addressed this issue a few weeks back.  It seems that senior Vatican staff agree with me and fear that we may well see history repeat itself.  Allen is not so sure. He says that Pope Paul VI never enjoyed the popularity of Francis, and with his moral authority already established, Francis would weather a storm better than Paul and people may well think that the decision that is made may may have been made in spite of him.  That is a good point.

Allen also says that the issue of Communion for the divorced and remarried is really an internal issue, and does not carry the same symbolism as the pill did in the 1960s.  That too is a point, however, we must remember that one of the major issues today is that of marriage and the Pope's decision will hinge on the question of what the Church recognises as marriage, its indissolubility, its exclusive nature.  In broad terms a reiteration of that may well anger many inside and outside the Church, and given that many Churchmen are already fixing their colours to their masts, there may well be the possibility of a schism. Some German dioceses, for example, may well decide that if Francis will not endorse their point of view and what some of them are already doing, they may well decide to go alone and reject the Holy See.  That did not happen in '68, but it may in 2015 or whenever the post synodal exhortation is promulgated.  Hopefully not; we must pray.

Blessed Alojzije Stepinac on trial under the communists

And finally, I'm not sure if you saw this: the way is almost clear for the canonisation of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, the martyr Cardinal of Croatia.  It seems a miracle is progressing and has been passed by medical experts.  I think it remains for the Holy Father to pass it and issue the decree of the miracle.  Cardinal Stepinac is a controversial figure, particularly in the Balkans. He is accused by Serbians of working with the Nazis in a puppet regime which had been set up in Croatia during the Second World War.  These accusations were used by the communists to imprison him and ultimately kill him.  Historical investigation, however, has proven these accusations to be without foundation, but like Pius XII, the mud has stuck and certain quarters will not accept that he was innocent.  Serbians opposed his beatification, and will no doubt also oppose his canonisation.  

Monday Musings

The Holy Father announced yesterday that he will declare St John of Avila and St Hildegard of Bingen Doctors of the Church on Sunday the 7th October.  He is doing so at the beginning of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation and for a particular reason - these two figures, he says, are of considerable importance and relevance.  Well, that should offer all of us an opportunity to get reading the lives and writings of these two new Doctors.  In fact, given that the Holy Father is placing the emphasis on two Saints in the context of the New Evangelisation, we can see that the Saints in general are important as the Church "puts out into the deep" in this new missionary endeavour. 

We must spare a thought for the Holy Father in these days as two crises envelop the Vatican.  The president of the Institute for the Works of Religion (Vatican "bank") is in trouble, and after an investigation, a suspect in the so-called "Vati-leaks"  has been arrested - it is the Pope's own butler.   This will be hard on the Holy Father who relies on and trusts those people who are members of the "Papal family".  To have a trusted assistant betray a confidence is one of the worst kinds of betrayal.   He may not have been the only one though, the Vatican gendarme are continuing their investigations.

According to reports, the man will be tried by the Vatican legal system - that must be a first in a long time.  In this system, the defendant has a trial, and if found guilty, can have two appeals.  If found guilty after all that, he'll do his time in an Italian prison.  I heard that he could face up to thirty years in prison because these leaks constitute a national security breach.  It all sounds very strange, but then again we have to remember that the Vatican is an independent sovereign state and it operates as such.

Some will find that hard to take - after all, Jesus did not set up his own country - he was an itinerant preacher proclaiming the Word of God. True, but in practical terms if the Holy Father is to do the same without interference from secular governments, he needs to be free from the obligations of citizenship, and so the best way to do that is to have him living in an independent country where he is the ruler.   If we object to that, just look at the way some of the history's secular rulers treated the Church - Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Joseph II of Austria, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin; and today - Barack Obama and Enda Kenny: if the Pope were a citizen under any of them his ministry would be seriously curtailed.  Indeed Napoleon almost made the Popes his puppets as he dragged one Pope into captivity where he died, and made the life of another an absolute misery. 

But we must pray for him.  The Pope holds the Papal family very dear. One member, Manuela Camagni, died a couple of years ago: this is another blow. 

When I first read of the "Papal family" I was very much impressed.  These members of staff - his secretaries, the sisters that care for him and the household, form a little community in the Papal apartments.   It must be a real support to the Holy Father who can rely on them to make a home for him in the midst of the officialdom and ceremony which surrounds him.  

To be honest, it is a model which we priests and our bishops should look to. As diocesan priests many of us do not live in community - and even those priests that live together may not form a community.  When in seminary we were told that we were preparing for life on our own - our parishes would be our community, but in reality when we go to our homes after a day's work, there is no community there.  Some priests like that, other's don't.  Certainly, in my opinion, it is not an ideal situation, priests need support, and unfortunately when there is no domestic support, priests on their own can fall prey to too many temptations just out of sheer loneliness or isolation.

When I was in Drogheda three of us priests lived in the presbytery and we actually did have a community.  We usually had dinner together, sometimes went out for an evening together, took an interest in each other's lives and interests, and helped each other.  Our individual families were always welcome.  Our staff were also part of the community - the housekeepers, secretaries, the handyman.  But such situations are rare.

As I was thinking about all this the Lord's words from Genesis came to mind: "It is not good for man to be alone".  We understand that in terms of marriage and man as a social animal.  In terms of priesthood, I think we might also see it as being a good indication that we should not live isolated lives.   I am not advocating marriage for priests, by the way, but certainly we might look at how priests can live in the midst of a family in his domestic life.  How that can happen I do not know.  One thing I do know - it should not be completely formed of priests as the tendency to clericalism would be a serious temptation.