Before joining hundreds of people for lunch yesterday, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor and prayed that all Christians would share “the love of God, which welcomes, binds up wounds, forgives, consoles and heals”. Source: OSV News.
With thousands of migrants, refugees, the homeless, the unemployed and members of the trans community present in St Peter’s Basilica or watching from St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo assured them, “In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us.”
Rather, “he reveals himself as the one who takes our side,” the Pope said in his homily for the Church’s celebration of the World Day of the Poor.
Volunteers with Vatican, diocesan and Rome-based Catholic charities joined the people they assist for the Mass. The French charity Fratello organised an international pilgrimage, bringing hundreds of people to Rome for the Mass, visits to the major basilicas of Rome and prayer services.
The Vatican said 6000 people were at Mass in the basilica and another 20,000 people watched on screens from St. Peter’s Square. By the time Pope Leo led the recitation of the Angelus prayer, some 40,000 people were in the square.
After the Angelus, as part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of their foundation, the Vincentian Fathers sponsored and served lunch for the Pope and his guests.
Members of the Daughters of Charity and volunteers from Vincentian organisations helped serve the meal and handed out 1500 backpacks filled with food and hygiene products.
The lunch featured a first course of vegetable lasagna, followed by chicken cutlets and vegetables and ending with baba, a small Neapolitan cake soaked in syrup. Rolls, fruit, water and soft drinks also were on offer.
In his homily at the Mass, Pope Leo said poverty is a challenge not only for those who believe in God, calling on “heads of state and the leaders of nations to listen to the cry of the poorest”.
“There can be no peace without justice,” Pope Leo said, “and the poor remind us of this in many ways: through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate.”
FULL STORY
Pope assures the poor they are loved by God, calls on governments to act (By Cindy Wooden, OSV News)
Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with more than 1,300 people in need at the Vatican (CNA)
