Homelessness will not be solved by bishops offering churches as shelter

Paddy Burns’s letter (Irish Examiner, February 13), ‘Bishops should open churches to homeless’, suggests that homelessness would be solved if people bedded-down on church floors, gawking up at rich frescoes of St Raphael, marble columns, and ornate ceilings, amid the gold leaf and marble of the country’s stunning and sacred churches, while leaving behind empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia.

A church is not a sanctuary for people with nowhere to sleep. It is a place for people to sit and quietly recharge their spiritual batteries. Just because 110 squatters (including 20 children) camped out for nine days at the fifth-century church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s four papal basilicas, does not mean the Irish hierarchy should open up their churches to bed the poor and indigent.

Rome has 5,800 crisis-stricken families who have illegally occupied buildings, including churches, and their eviction provoked violent clashes with police, when 350 families were evicted from an abandoned office block.

The deaths of two people on the streets in Ireland led to an outpouring of blame and generosity, and a forum on homelessness organised by Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly.

Homelessness is a complex issue that cannot be solved by moving the goal posts every few years. Why some people continue to sleep out at night, instead of accepting the offer of a bed, is a moot question.

Gerry Coughlan

Parkhill West

Kilnamanagh

Dublin 24