{"id":23008,"date":"2016-05-03T18:59:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T23:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=23008"},"modified":"2017-01-24T18:53:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T23:53:30","slug":"breaking-italian-supreme-court-knows-when-stealing-food-is-lawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2016\/05\/breaking-italian-supreme-court-knows-when-stealing-food-is-lawful.html","title":{"rendered":"Breaking: Italian Supreme Court Knows When Stealing Food Is Lawful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"The<\/a>
The Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus,\u00a0Hendrick ter Brugghen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Here in the U.S., we\u2019re busy making it illegal to hand out food to the homeless<\/a>, or we\u2019re throwing people in the slammer for 50 years for stealing some ribs<\/a>, etc. Seriously. I can\u2019t make up stories like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Italy, though, a case for stealing less than $5.00 worth of food made it all the way to the Supreme Court of Cassation<\/a>, and they ruled in favor of the defendant, Mr. Roman Ostriakov.<\/p>\n

Take a look.<\/p>\n

Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov after he stole cheese and sausages worth \u20ac4.07 (\u00a33; $4.50) from a supermarket.<\/p>\n

Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken the food \u201cin the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment\u201d, the court of cassation decided.<\/p>\n

Therefore it was not a crime, it said.<\/p>\n

A fellow customer informed the store\u2019s security in 2011, when Mr Ostriakov attempted to leave a Genoa supermarket with two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket but paid only for breadsticks.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Mr Ostriakov was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail and a \u20ac100 fine.<\/p>\n

For the judges, the \u201cright to survival prevails over property\u201d, said an op-ed in La Stampa newspaper (in Italian).<\/p>\n

In times of economic hardship, the court of cassation\u2019s judgement \u201creminds everyone that in a civilised country not even the worst of men should starve.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already used way too many links in this post, but I\u2019m sharing this story because \u00a0A) we\u2019re crazy in this country for jailing folks for crimes<\/em> such as these, B) I\u2019m not a huge fan of Italy, but they seem to have their heads on straight here, and C) I\u2019m no social justice hero (honestly, I never even heard of Daniel Berrigan, SJ<\/a> until a few days ago) but this decision makes all kinds of sense proportionally.<\/p>\n

And the bonus? It is the textbook example of what the Catechism teaches regarding the 7th Commandment. Here, I\u2019ll dust off my copy for you *blowing sound*,<\/p>\n

2408<\/a><\/strong> The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another\u2019s property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to put at one\u2019s disposal and use the property of others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fact that the Church has spent as much time thinking through situations like these, in order to determine the right, and civilized, way to live, is another reason why I am Catholic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,232,36],"tags":[82,87,255,31,1689,142,819,1868],"class_list":["post-23008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-learning","category-living","tag-clarity","tag-economics","tag-food","tag-in-the-news","tag-italy","tag-justice","tag-the-catechism","tag-the-homeless"],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking: Italian Supreme Court Knows When Stealing Food Is Lawful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here in the U.S., we're busy making it illegal to hand out food to the homeless, or we're throwing 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