A well-known campaigner has called on the public to at least acknowledge the homeless.
“You don’t have to give them money, but say hello, acknowledge them,” said Fr Peter McVerry SJ at a plenary session of the Eucharistic congress of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin last weekend.
In an interview with ciNews, Fr McVerry said that most homeless people are harmless, and there is no need to be frightened of them.
“They will acknowledge when they are treated with respect.” He went on, “When I pass I say ‘I’m sorry I’ve no change on me' and the usual response is ‘It’s ok. Thanks’. But you can’t ignore them. Acknowledging is more important than giving money.”
Fr McVerry said that homelessness is a political issue.
“We have to bring it up the political agenda and make it more a priority because even during the Celtic Tiger [years] the numbers of homeless people doubled.” He called on the public to support homeless organisations, and to lobby their own members of the Dáil to give people, “a right to a place called home, a legal right, and legislation which would eliminate homelessness.”
During his talk, Fr McVerry said that receiving the Eucharist is, “an act of radical commitment.”
He reminded the congregation at Carlow Cathedral that people go to Mass to remember how the first Christian community began, “namely through the total sacrifice of Jesus, and [we] recall the core values of self-sacrificing love that it [the Church] must live in order to be faithful. Therefore receiving the Eucharist is an act of radical commitment.”
He went on, “If we are not committed to self-sacrificing love, then the Eucharist has no meaning.”
In the same way he added, “If the Eucharistic congress does not commit us to eliminating hunger and homelessness, then it will be a holy waste of time.”
Questioned by congregation members after, Fr McVerry said that with the homeless, you cannot talk of God.
“You communicate God who is love, by loving them. How can you love them if you leave them homeless?”