Outside a homeless shelter. / Credit: Adrian Fallace via Flickr CC BY NC ND 2.0
CNA Staff, Nov 28, 2023 / 04:00 am (CNA).
GivingTuesday, annually held on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is a “global generosity movement unleashing the power of r… […]
Waiters bring lunch to Pope Francis and those seated at his table on the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 19, 2023. The lunch was offered by Hilton Hotels and organized by the Vatican’s charity office and the Sant’Egidio community. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Nov 20, 2023 / 11:11 am (CNA).
Pope Francis had lunch with approximately 1,200 poor, refugees, and homeless from around Rome on Sunday to mark the Catholic Church’s seventh observance of the World Day of the Poor.
The lunch, which was offered by Hilton Hotels, included spinach and ricotta cheese-stuffed cannelloni, meatballs with tomato sauce, and a cauliflower purée. The dessert was tiramisu and small pastries.
The lunch was organized by the Vatican’s charity office and the Catholic Sant’Egidio community.
Before the meal, Pope Francis led the weekly Sunday Angelus from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
He also celebrated a Mass for the poor in St. Peter’s Basilica, in which he called poverty “a scandal.”
“When the Lord returns, he will settle accounts with us and — in the words of St. Ambrose — he will say to us: ‘Why did you allow so many of the poor to die of hunger when you possessed gold to buy food for them? Why were so many slaves sold and mistreated by the enemy, without anyone making an effort to ransom them?’ (De Officiis: PL 16, 148-149).”
“Let us think, then,” the pope said in his homily, “of all those material, cultural, and spiritual forms of poverty that exist in our world, of the great suffering present in our cities, of the forgotten poor whose cry of pain goes unheard in the generalized indifference of a bustling and distracted society.”
Pope Francis established the World Day of the Poor in 2016 at the end of the Church’s Jubilee Year of Mercy. The day is celebrated each year on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, a week before the feast of Christ the King.
Since 2009 the Knights of Columbus have provided high-quality, new winter coats to children in need, with coats being distributed in 49 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”
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Pope Francis meets with charity workers at the Centro Paroquial de Serafina in Lisbon on Aug. 4, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Aug 4, 2023 / 04:35 am (CNA).
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Rome Newsroom, Feb 23, 2023 / 04:45 am (CNA).
Fath… […]
Pope Francis greets the crowd at his Angelus address on Feb. 19, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Feb 19, 2023 / 06:30 am (CNA).
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Pope Francis speaking at the general audience on St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Nov. 30, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Denver, Colo., Dec 1, 2022 / 12:10 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of December is for volunteer not-for-profit organizations.
“The world needs volunteers and organizations committed to seeking the common good,” the Holy Father said in a video appeal released Dec. 1.
“This is a word that many today would like to erase: ‘commitment.’ And the world needs volunteers who commit to the common good,” he said.
The pontiff called volunteers who work with not-for-profit organizations “artisans for mercy.”
“Being a volunteer who helps others is a choice that makes us free; it opens us to other people’s needs — to the demands of justice, to the defense of the poor, to the care of creation. It means being artisans of mercy: with our hands, with our eyes, with our attentive ears, with our closeness.”
He added: “The work of volunteer not-for-profit organizations is much more effective when they collaborate with each other and with governments.”
“By working together, however few resources they have, they do their best and make the miracle of the multiplication of hope a reality. We have a great need to multiply hope,” Pope Francis continued.
The Holy Father concluded the video message with a prayer: “Let us pray that volunteer not-for-profit and human development organizations may find people willing to commit themselves to the common good and ceaselessly seek out new paths of international cooperation.”
Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.
In a 2010 General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI said of St. Elizabeth of Hungary: In St Elizabeth we see how faith and friendship with Christ create a sense of justice, of the equality of all, […]
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