Pope orders cleanliness next to godliness for homeless

The Pope has ordered showers near St Peter's Basilica. Photo / AP

Pope Francis has ordered showers to be built for the homeless in the heart of St Peter's Square.

He wants three showers installed in a public toilet block behind the Renaissance colonnade of stone pillars that sweeps up to the entrance to St Peter's Basilica.

The facilities are built into the base of a centuries-old wall and squeezed between a Vatican post office and the main entrance to the Apostolic Palace.

The showers, to be paid for from Vatican charitable funds, were inspired by the experience of the Pope's chief almsgiver, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski.

Known officially as the Vatican almoner - a job that dates back to the 13th century and which involves handing out money to the poor - he recently met a 50-year-old homeless man from Sardinia on the streets of Rome and offered to buy him dinner.

But the man, identified only as Franco, declined, explaining apologetically: "I can't, because I stink."

"I took him to dinner anyway," Archbishop Krajewski told La Stampa newspaper. "While we were eating, he explained that it was not difficult for the homeless in Rome to find something to eat, but what they lacked was a place to wash."

Asked if the sight of homeless people queuing for showers might put off tourists, the Polish prelate said: "Throughout the history of Rome, the poor have always gathered around churches."

There was a mixed response to the papal initiative from a group of homeless people camping out in St Peter's Square

"I think it's a great thing. At the moment we have to go a long way out of Rome to take a shower twice a week. We go by train but can't afford tickets so we're often thrown off," said Zbislaw, a 60-year-old Polish man living rough in Rome.

But his friend, Grzegorz Bialas, 50, also from Poland, said: "After a couple of months you'll have 500 homeless queuing to use the showers. This is a holy place - the showers should be put somewhere else."