

San Francisco Catholic church installs watering system to drench homeless people - lukashed
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/san-francisco-catholic-church-installs-watering-system-to-drench-homeless-people-as-they-sleep/

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patio11
The CBS story is marginally better:
[http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/18/homeless-
saint-m...](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/18/homeless-saint-marys-
cathedral-archdiocese-san-francisco-intentionally-drenched-water-sleeping/)

The mind boggles, though. It's not just against doctrine. (It is against
Catholic doctrine. Slam-dunkingly so. If you put a question about it on a
religious education test, it would be the easiest question in 2000 years. If
you polled Catholic theologians, you would _literally_ find more support for
atheism than for this decision.)

It's also -- and this is the part which honestly confuses me -- strikingly out
of character for the politics of the people that get selected to make
purchasing decisions for cathedrals. The institutional Church has a pretty
well-known slant on this. It is generally modestly-to-severely left of where
doctrine obligates them to be. You'd expect the ones in _San Francisco_ (of
all places!) to be at-or-near the farthest extreme left of political positions
on homelessness possible in the United States.

How is it blinking _possible_ that someone signed a PO for a system which is
not just anathema it's the _particular, caricatured type of anathema_ which is
associated with one's mortal political enemies?

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ArekDymalski
There was a time when churches were considered to be a safe shelter for anyone
in need.

The story is disgusting, but the Archdiocese spokeperson's comment is simply
outraging: “We do the best we can, and supporting the dignity of each person,
but there is only so much you can do.”

I assume he's talking about protecting the "dignity" of the wealthier
visitors, so they won't be disturbed by unpleasant views and odors, right?

