A County Laois priest has told worshippers at his church not to give money to beggars hanging about at the door of his church during weekend Masses. In the parish newsletter in Portaloise, Fr John Byrne complained that over recent weekends “people have been soliciting funds from people as they enter the parish church for Mass”.
He claimed the women involved “are not residing in Portlaoise” but that they travel each Saturday evening and Sunday morning to beg at the Church doors.
“They are professional beggars,” said Fr Byrne.
“They have been asked to stop this practice and to allow people free access to the Church - alas, to no avail”.
He said that while the Gospel encourages us to assist those in need, “we have no way of knowing what the situation of these people is or how needy they are in fact,” he wrote.
“So we are asking people not to support them as the only way to make sure this practice doesn’t continue.”
A spokesperson for the Gardaí in Portlaoise told local media that they had not received any complaints about beggars outside the church but if a complaint were received they would act on it.
But he said there were legal issues about begging in public which were currently the subject of a High Court challenge.
The Garda spokesperson said if anyone is causing a disturbance or disruption in public, the Gardaí can then invoke powers under the Public Order Act.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce