Thursday, February 18, 2010

Holy Father Tells Homeless: The Church Will not Abandon You

It was bittersweet watching this video. On the one hand, I was happy to see the Holy Father's compassion toward the homeless in Italy and on the other hand, being struck by the hard reality that there is a homeless problem in Italy.

Every day on the way to daily Mass, I cannot help but be moved by seeing the street people sleeping on the cold and hard concrete sidewalk. One man sleeps on the corner wrapped in his blanket. He sleeps with a blaring light that is on all night long.  He arises at approximately 6:00am, and spends the day clad only in a towel around his waist.

Across the street from the church there is an elderly lady who has been on the streets for over 20 years. She is now reduced to reclining on a bundle of rags and a cushioned mat someone was kind enough to give her. She used to spend her days and nights on the hard bus stop bench. But the City had the benches removed thinking that would alleviate Honolulu of its homeless problem. 

Today, a few feet away from this elderly woman, there was another elderly woman. This lady was in her wheelchair, surrounded by her worldly possession.

How do we help the endless number of homeless street people?

We do it one person at a time.

No comments: