Papal bull? What the Pope said about Roma
05 November 2015
On Monday, October 26th, Pope Francis spoke to an audience of 7,000 people from the Roma and Sinti communities on the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul IV's meeting with Roma people in an informal settlement near Rome. While many were happy to receive his blessing, others were less impressed with what he had to say. In this guest blog, William Bila takes issue with the Pontiff’s message.
What was the purpose of the Pope’s meeting? Was it to draw attention to social injustice, or to give a sign of hope? If that was the case then he failed miserably.
Inviting people, then giving them unsolicited advice in the form of chastisement fails on all counts to give anyone any hope that things will get better. On the contrary, it gives the majority of European society another reason to wag its collective finger at the Roma. The Pope said, “Your children have the right to go to school, do not stop them from doing so!” Well, he should be saying that to the highest level of officials in France, whose policies of evictions upsets the stability of family life and prevents children from going to school, not to mention is has cost the country over €50 million this year alone. Why didn’t he chastise the authorities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, against whom the European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings for allowing segregated schooling to continue in defiance of the European Court of Human Rights which ruled such systems illegal and called for them to be dismantled? And the members of his church who are citizens of these countries who allow this racialization of politics to continue, when will he address them?
Instead he is blaming the victims. How is this sending a signal of hope? In the context of an invitation to the Vatican, did he tell these parents to stand up and fight for their rights as equal European citizens? That would be encouragement to do the right thing.
Instead, his intention to encourage better behaviour mentioned peaceful co-habitation, not having children die in fires (in shantytowns), and human trafficking. What is he implying, that Roma are willfully living in substandard conditions in socially excluded areas? Who is really in control of the situation here? Is it really these people who came to Rome, who listened to this message of blame, who should change their behaviour?
Why didn’t the Pope just use a bit of common sense when addressing his audience. Let’s take the issue of shantytowns. Unfortunately, applying common sense is something which many local and national authorities across Europe are also unable to do. The French government’s eviction policy targeting Roma is a money pit, which eternally creates the problem it is trying to solve: illegal shanty towns demolished one day, only to spring up another day. People need a roof over their heads before their kids can go to school, and they do manage to go to school when their shantytowns are left alone, as they have managed to do in La Courneuve for the past 7 years until this September. Instead of spending €50m a year chasing people and destroying any chance for them to find stability, a one-time spend of €50m toward housing could probably pay to house four thousand families, or close to 15,000 people per year. Investing towards a long term housing solution for the population currently living in shantytowns across France, regardless of whether they are of Romani origin or not would make far more sense. The Pope should also remember that the people in these shantytowns are not exclusively Roma, and they don’t choose to live there for lifestyle reasons. It is poverty.
Unfortunately, it looks like Sweden considers the French model a success. It has recently started to follow suit by chasing the Roma away from Malmö using the excuse of public hygiene and health, without offering an alternative place to live. Voters do not object, although perhaps they aren’t being informed of the cost both in terms of human lives and how their tax money is being spent. Migrant Roma do not vote locally, though within the EU they do have the right to do so. Why doesn’t the Pope encourage them to do so? Why doesn’t the Pope condemn the local communities who allow such evictions to take place? And the national governments who do nothing to protect human rights of European citizens? Yet the Pope went out of his way to invite Roma from Sweden to participate in his charade in Rome.
I did not hear any message of hope or inspiration. I did not hear a universal condemnation of the treatment of poverty, regardless of the national origin of the poor. Nor did I hear a universal rejection of the racialized treatment of Romani peoples. Anti-gypsyism is at the root of all these problems.
I was disappointed by this poorly managed sham of a publicity event. The Vatican need not have waited 50 years to mark the anniversary of Pope Paul VI reaching out to Roma populations. Commemorations of this historic meeting could have started much sooner, and could have become an annual event to remind the European faithful that Roma are full and equal members of the flock, whose contribution to Christianity should be celebrated.
After this meeting, there is one thing that does not disappoint me, and that is having left the church years ago. Too bad - I would have been much happier to discover I was wrong.
