Migrants throw down a challenge by squatting in basilica

Dozens of homeless migrants have occupied a church linked to  Pope Francis, demanding political asylum from the Vatican. Around 120 people, including 15 children, have taken shelter in Santa Maria Maggiore, the Marian basilica where Francis prays before major endeavours, such as his trip to the Holy Land on 24 May.

Francis has promised to throw open disused convents as shelters, while saying that the Church must be “the first port of call” for migrants. The group of 50 families from Algeria, Morocco, Ukraine and Romania say they have nowhere to go after Italian authorities evicted them from a squat on the outskirts of Rome.

Rashid Belbiar, a Moroccan immigrant, said the group feels abandoned by Pope Francis. He said: “He says he is a Pope for the poor. But we ask for help and we hear nothing.” A letter to the Pope read: “We ask that you make yours the wounds that we carry, that you grant us – as human beings who have been persecuted, harassed and humiliated by the Italian state – political asylum.”

The Pope was due to visit the basilica on Thursday this week as part of a Corpus Christi procession. The basilica shuts its doors at 8 p.m., whereupon the group lay out their beds on its marble floors. They rise at 5.30 a.m. and tidy their beds away before Mass at 7 a.m. Don Angelo, one of the priests, said the church was “feeling the weight” of the visitors’ stay. He said: “This is a holy place that at night turns into a dormitory.

“They are good people … But unlike other churches we don’t have another room for parishioners or a space to put them in.”

n A French priest risks a fine of €12,000 (£9,601) for housing about 40 asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola in his parish hall and a chapel and ignoring official warnings to stop for the past two years, writes Tom Heneghan.

The public prosecutor in Saint-Etienne in eastern central France has asked a court to fine Fr Gérard Riffard, saying that housing refugees is not “normal use” for a church. “As a Christian, it is my duty to extend a hand to the ­poorest,” Fr Riffard said. “It’s
absolutely impossible for me to leave a baby sleeping outside.” The court’s decision is due in September.