Catholic Church Evicts Homeless

[sudopod]

96. You are excellent at missing the point on purpose.

I'll repeat myself, since that seems to be the thing to do. The idea behind the occupation was:

1) The Church has enormous land holdings, much of which is sitting unused.
2) The Church has doctrines which say that they are commanded by God Himself to care for the poor.
3) Point out that this re purposing of a vacant building uses the Church's resources to do the Church's self-declared mission, making it difficult for the Church to call in the riot police without looking a bit hypocritical. There is a large banner on the front of the building with Bible quotes to this effect. I would have found something form JP2 to go along with it, myself.


The Church has made it clear that it will have nothing to do with "social justice" movements since it crushed the liberation theology people at the end of the 20th century. However, it was reasonable to try to shame them into doing the right thing--allowing use of derelict buildings as empty housing--since "helping the poor" is supposedly part of their mission statement. It's only considered crazy here in the US, whereas letting people sleep in the rain when there's a perfectly good building rotting away is considered crazy elsewhere, but perhaps that can be changed.

Once the Overton window has been moved, and people accept that this particular vacant building can serve this way, it becomes easier to maneuver local, city, and state governments into allowing this for wider swathes of vacant buildings and foreclosed housing.

I guess the Church really needed that 11K rent payment, though. Crystal Cathedrals don't pay for themselves, you know!