Castel Gandolfo, Italy (AP) – Pope Leo XIV spent the last Sunday of his summer vacation with several dozen refugees, homeless and poor and the volunteers of the church that help them, celebrating a special mass for them and inviting them in the field by the Vatican Lake for a lasagna and roasted veal lunch.
Leo celebrated mass in the sanctuary of St. Mary d’Albano, near the Papal summer retirement to Castel Gandolfo, where he is on vacation. Mass attended approximately 110 people maintained by the local charity of the Caritas church and the volunteers who direct the shelters, clinics and offices of the social services of the diocese.
In his homily, Leo celebrated the “fire of charity” which had gathered them.
“And I encourage you not to distinguish those who help and those who are helped, between those who seem to give and those who seem to receive, between those who seem poor and those who feel that they have something to offer in terms of time, skills and help,” he said.
In the Church, he said, everyone is poor and precious, and all share the same dignity.
Leo, the former Robert Prevost, has spent most of his adult life working with The poor of PeruFirst as a Augustin missionary, then as a bishop. The former parishioners and the workers of the Church say that he has considerably strengthened the work of Local charity of CaritasOpening popular soups and shelters for migrants and rallying funds to build oxygen plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Later Sunday, Leo chaired a lunch with the guests, who included Rosabal Leon, a Peruvian refugee who has been in Italy for a few months, with her husband and two children. Leo’s other companion was an 85 -year -old Roman, Gabriella Oliveiro, who lives alone, said the organizers.
Lunch took place at Borgo Laudato if ‘The Vatican Environmental Educational Center in the gardens of Villa Papale in Castel Gandolfo. The center is called the 2015 benchmark for Pope Francis environmental encyclicalLaudato Si (rented).
Local caterers have provided a menu of lasagna, parmesan Aubergine and roasted veal. For dessert, the menu provided for a fruit salad and candy named for the Pope, “Dolce Leone”.
By welcoming the pope and his guests, who were sitting along two long tables under a veranda, Bishop Albano Vincenzo Viva declared that their gathering to break the bread followed the teaching of Christ.
Today’s Church, he said, should be “to the most vulnerable, the weakest team, the young people and those who are injured by the circumstances of life and history”.
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Rosa reported to Albano, Italy and Winfield of Rome.
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