RIGHTS INSTEAD OF ALMS
Protests for the Rights of the Homeless in Berlin
By Peter Nowak[This article published on 1/30/2019 is translated from the German on the Internet, http://jungleworld.de Many passersby reacted with malice, snide remarks and indifference to the protest action, a vigil for the rights of the homeless before the Red City Hall.]
“This placard is only for the homeless,” it says on colorful posters informing people without housing about aid programs. Is there a growing private readiness to help in the cold season, as the Taz (Berlin newspaper) editor Waltraud Schwab thinks? She hopes for a harsh winter. “The frost isn’t horror but wakens sympathy for all those freezing in the city.”
Persons who live on the street have n o appreciation for such social romanticism. “I could sleep here if I had a polar-fit sleeping bag and socks,” said a woman who spent two nights in front of Red City Hall in temperatures below freezing… From January 23-25, they joined in a vigil against homelessness. The “Homeless Parliament” endorsed the vigil. The protestors demand rights for persons without housing instead of beautiful words and alms. Nicole Lindner of the Renter Party has little regard for social romanticism. She cannot confirm that cold temperatures produce social warmth. During the vigil before the Red City Hall, she was met with much malice, snide remarks and indifference, she told Jungle World. Another female participant broke out in rage that young persons in good winter clothing made fun of the people who froze before the Red City Hall. The 30 members of a flash mob against homelessness on January 26 also lamented the indifference of the public.
One user of the emergency shelter for the homeless said from personal experience that not enough was done for health protection…
Occasionally, there was indignation when the rights of the homeless were violated. The mayor of Berlin, Stephan von Dassel (The Greens) experienced this at the end of January…. The Berlin social senator Elke Breitenbach (Die Linke, The Left party) abhorred the expulsion and stigmatization of the homeless. She criticized the clearing of the homeless camp near the main train station and referred to model interaction s with the homeless in Lichtenberg. “We send social workers to the camp of homeless persons.
They see what their problems are, speak with them and try to develop individual solutions.” Political groups criticized that the utensils used in the emergency shelter were thrown in the trash.
Whether the sympathy with the homeless expressed above all in the social networks will also be manifest on the street will be shown on April 6. On that day, a big demonstration of the Berlin Renters movement is planned that will protest a real estate fair. The “Homeless Parliament” that demands rights for the homeless is represented in the alliance. People become homeless because rents are often too high and wages too low.
The Berlin “Alliance to Prevent Evictions” recalled at the vigil before the Red City Hall that shelters were removed daily. Many of the sufferers land on the street. It is time to champion a basic right to housing and ensure its implementation.
POPE FRANCIS AND THE FUTURE OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
By Johan Verstraeten[This article published in Concilium 2016 is translated from the German on the Internet, www.concilium-online.de.]
1. The Power of Judgment and Changing the World
Pope Francis writes: “An authentic faith that is never comfortable and individualistic always includes the deep desire to change the world” (Evangelii Gaudium – EG – 183). He explicitly uses the word liberation for the obligation to change. “Every Christian and every community is called to be God’s instrument for liberation and advancement of the poor” (EG 187). With this call to liberation, he also rejects the technocratic paradigm. The poor suffer most in environmental change (Laudatio Si – LS – 111). Catholic social teaching and science can no longer be “mere general references that do not concern anyone immediately” (EG 187).
To find proper answers to the challenges of our times, social judgments and social theory must be based on the principle “reality is more than ideas” (EG 231-233). Concepts and theories are important when they promote contact with reality and do not remove us from reality” (EG 194). People often suffer under wrong decisions and mistakes because “many academics, opinion-makers, media- and power centers are far re moved and do not come into contact with their problems. […] This lack of physical contact and encounter […] “cauterize the conscience. Part of reality is ignored in