Pope Francis building three showers for homeless people in heart of historic St. Peter’s Square | National Post

This strikes me as a very practical, scriptural, and Jesuit initiative, worthy of the first Jesuit Pontiff.

Practical in that it directly addresses a present need among 'the poorest among us' through the use of Church properties. From the earliest 'hospitals' of the Dark Ages which were attached to cloisters and churches along the roads of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa so as to feed, billet, and care for the poor traveller who could not afford to stay at an Inn - to this shower initiative, the Church has tended to the cares of anyone who needed help on a journey.

Scriptural in that it a concrete expression of exactly what Christ called on his disciples and follower to do: tend to the alien, the widow and orphan by putting yourself at their service.

Jesuit because it's so practical and evangelical at the same time. It will remind curial prelates and clerics that the great 'unwashed' are the people they are commissioned to serve by Christ himself - and not the great powers and principalities of the world that should concern them. They are to see in any future line of folks waiting a shower their very brothers and sisters in Christ... or at the very least recognize them as their neighbour!

Fr. Tim

Pope Francis building three showers for homeless people in heart of historic St. Peter’s Square | National Post