Spirit Of The Season

About 18 months ago, about 10 homeless men sought refuge on the front steps of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the heart of downtown [and] slept there peacefully, church officials said. In the past few months, though, the crowd sleeping on the steps of the Florida Avenue church swelled to about 70 people. More recently, the problems - fights, cursing, drunkenness, trash - grew, too.

Now Sacred Heart officials say the homeless, at least for the time being, are not welcome to sleep on the church's steps. "The whole scene had changed from people feeling very safe on the steps to people not feeling comfortable," the Rev. Andrew Reitz said.

Surprisingly, people weren't complaining about the Church officials. So obviously, none of the squatters were pre-pubescent lads.