by João Marcelo
SAO PAULO – “Our relationship with the homeless population predates the pandemic. With the arrival of the pandemic, we saw clearly that we could not regress and leave the people with whom we always live, in a difficult situation, without our presence. And we realized that we had to break the incommunicability with the street population”.
Based on this observation, Father Júlio Lancellotti, elder of the Pastoral do Povo de Rua in São Paulo, gained international visibility for his work with the street population. The priest acts as parish priest in the Parish of São Miguel Arcanjo, in the Mooca neighborhood, in the capital of São Paulo.
The project led by the priest, who has been fighting for the improvement of the quality of life of the homeless in São Paulo for 30 years, broke barriers, and today occupies other spaces in the city.
The phone call from Pope Francis in October 2020 surprised the priest. “The Pope said that he saw the photos we sent him and that he knows about the difficulties we have been through, but that we should not be discouraged and always do like Jesus, being with the poorest”.
On the last 10th, the religious helped to break, by hammering, pieces of stones that were placed under an overpass to prevent the homeless from occupying that place during the night. In an interview with Dire news agency, the priest says that this direct action posture is difficult and conflicting.
However, according to Lancelotti, it is important to oppose hostile architecture and that these pressures can generate greater welcome for people in this situation. The objective, according to the parish priest, is for policies to be implemented that seek to take these people off the streets. “We don’t want people to be under the overpasses, but we also don’t want hostile architecture.”
PADRE LANCELLOTTI: “IN PANDEMIA STO CON I POVERI DI STRADA“
di João Marcelo
SAN PAOLO DEL BRASILE – “La nostra convivenza con la gente di strada di San Paolo è nata molto prima della pandemia.