The Homeless in St. Peter's Square
A witness at 4am
On Friday, January 24th, together with Fr. Joe McCabe and Cynthia Lynch, I spoke to a group of priests, deacons, and staff at the Catholic Foreign Mission Society on the Jubilee Trip 2025 to Rome. My job was to document this journey, where a Maryknoll priest accompanied a group of major donors and benefactors on a trip of a lifetime, interweaving mission stories, prayer, and history into a wonderful experience.
Of course, I took the liberty to hit the street on my own.
One thing that has always captivated me about Rome is the community of the homeless who gather under the columns and along the walls for safety at night. As the crowds begin to appear at the security gates, they quietly move along.
When you are there alone, in the earliest parts of the morning, before the crowds and before they awake, you can feel a spiritual density to it all. It makes sense that the world doesn’t see this, but it’s there. And, they are taken care of by the Holy Church. It’s not new; it’s been this way since the beginning of the Church in Rome. It’s part of the story.
I asked a priest many years ago about a parish church whose leadership seemed lacking, which led me to ask, “How do I know if a Church is spiritually legitimate?” Kind of a dumb question, but he got what I meant.
He looked over at me and said, “That’s easy, if the poor are there, so is Christ.” ... Duh.
