Squatters’ urban garden comes to life with pope’s tacit OK
ROME — Dozens of families have started tilling the soil and planting their first crops as a squatters’ gardening initiative takes root on Catholic Church-owned land with the tacit blessing of Pope Francis.
The not-entirely-legal urban garden that has sprung up on the eastern periphery of Rome is the brainchild of Omero Lauri, a longtime activist in the capital’s squatting scene. In 2014, he occupied the St. Mary Major basilica for three weeks with 50 families who had been evicted from an abandoned building they had taken over.
For the past four years, Lauri and his friends have been working the 15 hectares (37 acres) of abandoned land they occupied at Tor Tre Teste. They cleared it of garbage and rocks, installed a well-fed irrigation system and turned the land into fertile plots that Lauri has been handing over for free — with a nominal 30 euro a year inscription fee — to needy families to farm.
“We believe that all people have the right to a piece of land for free,” Lauri told the newest families to the project Sunday after assigning them their plots by lottery.