Homeless end occupation of historic basilica in Naples after 22 days

By Catholic News Service

NAPLES, Italy (CNS) – A group of 348 homeless people, including 115 children, occupied a historic basilica in Naples for 22 days, demanding that government officials find them permanent public housing.

Masses at the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, popularly known as "the Carmine," were suspended after the basilica was occupied April 4 by more than 150 people who had been forcibly removed from a building they had been occupying illegally for several years.

Homeless people from other cities joined those inside the basilica and the entire group said it would not leave until public housing was found for everyone.

Police ordered the homeless to leave the basilica April 26 and, while several shouted insults at the Carmelite priests whose order has staffed the parish since the 13th century, everyone went peacefully.

Buses waited outside to take the homeless to temporary shelter in an unused post office on the outskirts of Naples.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that a survey of the basilica's condition after the homeless left found damage to a marble altar rail and column, a broken crucifix, a lot of graffiti and a soiled rug, which apparently had been used as a table cloth.

While Masses were not celebrated at the basilica April 27, the Carmelites expected to be back on a normal schedule by April 30.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples had been meeting regularly with city officials during the basilica's occupation, but commented publicly for the first time April 21.

"This is a situation that no one likes. Occupying a church is always a desecration," Cardinal Sepe told reporters. "I hope that by the end of the week pastoral activity can resume at the Carmine, which is one of the most important churches in the city."

Italy's civil protection service and neighbors around the church provided blankets, milk and food to those inside.

The homeless, who had used the basilica's side altars to create private space for several families, said they organized crews to keep the basilica clean even as they cooked, ate, slept and washed inside the church.

The church dates back to the 12th century, although it was extensively rebuilt in the late 13th century and again in the mid-1700s. It houses a Marian icon, "La Bruna," or "the brown one," which is said to have been brought to the church in the 13th century by Carmelite priests fleeing violence on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.