Pope Francis has ramped up the Vatican’s charity work, sending his chief alms-giver and a contingent of Swiss guards onto the streets of Rome at night to do what he usually can’t do: comfort the poor and the homeless.
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was known to sneak out at night and break bread with the homeless, sit with them literally on the street and eat with them, as part of his aim to share the plight of the poor and let them know someone cared.
In the Vatican, the pope tapped Archbishop Konrad Krajewski and off-duty guards to make the rounds at Rome’s train stations, where charities set up makeshift soup kitchens that feed 400 to 500 people a night.
Krajewski is the Vatican almoner, a position dating to medieval times that Francis has redefined to make it a hands-on extension of his personal charity.
“My job is to be an extension of the pope’s arm toward the poor, the needy, those who suffer,” Krajewski said. “He cannot go out of the Vatican, so he has chosen a person who goes out to hug the people who suffer,” taking the pope’s place.
Larger and longer-term charity works are handled by the Vatican’s international charity federation. The almoner, Krajewski said, is more a “first-aid” compassion station: quick, small doses of help that don’t require bureaucratic hurdles but are nevertheless heartfelt and something of a sacrifice.
Sources
AP/Huffington Post
The Washington Post
The Telegraph
Image: Getty Images/Huffington Post