-
A homeless person is treated by a Red Cross worker during the COVID-19 outbreak in Rome March 17, 2020. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)
March 26, 2020
Catholic San Francisco
Faith leaders across San Francisco, including three Catholic pastors, will hold a virtual vigil Friday, March 27, at 10 a.m., to pray that Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors will protect the city's most vulnerable and provide shelter for all during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier in the week, the faith leaders signed an open letter urging the mayor and supervisors to
swiftly place fellow San Franciscans currently living on the streets or in crowded shelters or
SROs into vacant hotel rooms in the city.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, San Francisco was home to at least 8,000 people living on the
streets, plus many more thousands packed into crowded shelters or in SRO rooms with shared
kitchens or bathrooms. The outbreak has exacerbated a public health crisis in which group living facilities put residents at risk, according to an announcement by Faith in Action Bay Area.
The faith leaders said it is a “moral indignity” to leave vulnerable San Franciscans unhoused
when 30,000 hotel rooms remain vacant.
The faith leaders also expressed hope that this crisis “will bring about a new reality in which
unjust economic systems can be restructured and the vulnerable are taken care of.”
The faith leaders sent a letter to Mayor Breed on March 25, noting that that the city has reached out to come religious congregations about the possibility of sheltering the homeless during the crisis.
“While we are always ready to contribute, we feel it is irresponsible to create new living facilities that would endanger residents and staff,” the letter said.
.
“Our faith traditions have much to say about plagues and the possibilities for societal change,” the letter continued. “The prophets spoke the truth to unjust leaders about their violent exploitation of people and the land. They said there will be consequences if leaders did not turn from their wicked ways. But the oppression continued and there was a price to be paid. Plagues in our sacred scriptures were a natural consequence of violence done to the earth and its inhabitants.”
The signers include Grace Salena, director, Ignatian Spiritual Life Center, St. Agnes Catholic Church; Jesuit Father Raymond Allender, pastor, St. Agnes; Father Greg Coniglio, pastor, St. Ignatius Parish; Father Moises Agudo, vicar of the Archdiocese of San Francisco for Spanish-speakers and pastor of three parishes in the Mission District; and Lorena Melgarejo, executive director, Faith in Action Bay Area.