Homeless, alcoholic, beggar at Church

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Seagull said:
Police should be notified - steals from local stores - wow
Three years - and getting worse -
and more confrontational - bullying -
Priest sounds like a total milk toast -
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You don’t know that the police haven’t been called and haven’t done what they could do.
The law doesn’t always allow them to make the kind of interventions they’d like the mentally ill to accept.
 
Not every aggressive beggar who drinks is necessarily either homeless or an alcoholic.

Regardless of where he lives, he’s at your church because its good location to panhandle. A lot of people with plenty of change to spare. That’s the help he is looking for.
 
I can’t tell you what to do since I don’t know the whole situation, you must use prudence, but I as was praying the LOTH today, the Office of Readings and this prayer came up, thought it was prudent to share.

“What do you wish for, what do you pray for, my dear brothers and sisters, when you come to church? Is it mercy? How can it be anything else? Show mercy, then, while you are on earth, and mercy will be shown to you in heaven. A poor person asks you for something; you ask God for something. He begs for a morsel of food; you beg for eternal life. Give to the beggar so that you may merit to receive from Christ. For he it is who says: Give and it will be given to you. It baffles me that you have the impudence to ask for what you do not want to give. Give when you come to church. Give to the poor. Give them whatever your resources will allow.”
 
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“ …less bold people get controlled by him “
  • not good.
    I feel bad for all the fragile old believers -
    or those who have walkers -
    And here comes the stubborn aggressive panhandler
    Someimes shouting - and with a good grab on an old lady’s arm could bruise her up …
    I wouldn’t even trust parking my car there… .
    if the Priest is letting him roam about the premises.
 
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Seagull said:
That’s - NOT - my idea of a good well rounded Shepherd.

I could never go to a church - where the Priest had SSA either.
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Why bring up your second comment? The priest is not milk toast, he has been treating the man with dignity, setting up meetings with a shelter and a doctor. I think some conclusions have been jumped to without merit. The man is making people uncomfortable and OP says he has some mental issues. These issues probably attribute to his homelessness. I just find your responses a wee bit uncharitable. Change Churches? Christ tells us the poor will always be with us. It sounds to me like the ushers are doing what they can. If the situation gets out of hand, the police can be called.
 
Roseeurekacross said:
Your Priest should be giving Pastoral Care for this man
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Well, but he can’t hogtie him for pastoral care. If the man refuses, that’s that.
If the law doesn’t allow intervention, not even civil law enforcement can force him to get help.
 
Seagull said:
I could never go to a church - where the Priest had SSA either.
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You wouldn’t necessarily know, although I don’t see why you had to throw that slap at SSA into a completely unrelated discussion. Perhap you should start a separate thread.
 
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This man does not seem receptive to change. And given that he has been there for three years and you have not been concerned about his aggression, it sounds like the aggression might be a recent development.

He is unwilling to take the steps necessary to change his living conditions, much less himself. He is (becoming?) aggressive.

Yes, we should help the poor. But we should not encourage potentially dangerous people. We should not enable them to maintain a bad lifestyle, we should *help them attain a better lifestyle.

Once this guy finds out he has worn out his welcome even at the church, he may decide it’s time to change, if only his location… Maybe it’s time for the priest to reconsider the situation.
 
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hergratefulchild said:
He in general is ok but regularly shouts, holds and stop people who he thinks will talk to him. It is quite intimidating.
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Honestly, I believe the Police should deal with him.
TheLittleLady said:
If this man is accosting people, refuses to participate in the help you have arranged, call the police. One day it will spiral out of control.
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Yes. His behavior is inappropriate. For his safety and the safety of others the Police should be called.
 
Cruciferi said:
Yes. His behavior is inappropriate. For his safety and the safety of others the Police should be called.
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I think it would be better just to ask him to leave and not come back first.

These bums really don’t like to go to jail, and if they see that is the next step they will vamoose.
 
That’s not what I meant. I meant rather then the parishioners having the concern.
 
PetraG said:
You don’t know that the police haven’t been called and haven’t done what they could do.
The law doesn’t always allow them to make the kind of interventions they’d like the mentally ill to accept.
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He’s accosting and touching people 🤨 If he was bothering my mother I’d get in his face and tell him to scram!

He should go elsewhere.
 
You don’t have to have those issues to shout , stop people, or touch them…
 
We are all sinners. You have the attraction to sin too, because some of our good is corrupted by evil.

It’s what we do about it that counts, not that it exists in us
 
I was told that people, for lunch,
they no longer walk outside of the building anymore for exercise.
A gal told me this - she works in L.A - too dangerous.
Cops can’t do much -
I guess some of the homeless can accost people - boldly etc
Going the bathroom - right in the street -

But going to church …morning mass,
and constantly confronted by a deranged aggressive panhandler -
Like the man who was possessed by demons - in bible, Legion…
No one went that way - obviously.

It’s just me - after 3 weeeks - I’d find somewhere safer.
 
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I know someone who carries protein bars to give to those who ask for money for food. Seems like a good thing to do. That said, most cities have no pandering laws that can be enforced by calling the authorities. Businesses in my city often call the police to remove beggars from the vicinity of their establishments.
 
RCbkw said:
I know someone who carries protein bars to give to those who ask for money for food
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One bit of advice, make sure they are soft bars w/o nuts. If you have very bad teeth or no teeth it can be from painful to impossible to eat hard things.
 
Sorry you have this situation. We have a similar man. He goes through phases when he has help and looks quite well and speaks/greets us and comes in a lights candles and then phases where he yells and comes in drunk and begging. He’s had a good phase, but I saw him in dirty clothes this morning so I wonder. We try to go with the flow and support has been offered by our previous priest (new priest has only been there in the good phase) and he seemed to use it but now he looks a little rough so I am thinking binge time perhaps. sadly it is sometimes the way these things go, I am no expert in mental health or his particular issues so I don’t know how his case is dealt with
. Hopefully not with the man you have. We just do what we can offering help and trying to get him into programs and trying to help when he accepts it and then dealing with his outbursts and tyrants when not… I guess he gets some comfort from coming to the church and lighting candles. Our last priest let him take food from the foodbank collections as he said it didn’t matter which poor it went to as long as to the poor. Anyway, I just wanted to empathise … Actually we have a second man too but he just comes and sits quietly in the foyer til mass is over then sits in the church… We just let them be …. as much as we can until trouble then luckily for us the police station is over the road. I believe one of them has had to be removed once… but mostly the one man just yells unintelligibly and other than sounding frightening it’s not too bad though it is often during mass so the priest has to stop and wait til he has finished and left…
 
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