It’s 8.10 pm at the Vatican City and just a few meters away from Saint Anne’s Gate (Porta Sant’Anna) is a grey Fiat Ducato van.
Its boot is filled with canned food, milk, juices, crates of fruit and toothbrush and toothpaste kits. Before getting in, a small group of people recite the Our Father.
There are two bishops – one appointed but not yet consecrated – with some nuns and five Swiss Guards who are off duty and dressed in jeans and jackets. The final act of a day spent in the most hidden part of Rome, the “invisible” homeless people’s Rome, is about to take place.
The Church and the city’s parishes and associations, the Community of Sant’Egidio being one of them, have always tried to help the poor and continue to do so in many different ways.
But now they are at the centre of everybody’s attention: initiatives are multiplying and charity is becoming contagious.
Not only has Francis opened a shower service for them under the St. Peter’s Square colonnade – which is where our journey begins – he has even involved them in the distribution of small Gospels or prayer books handed out as gifts to pilgrims after the Sunday Angelus. And he invited them to visit the Sistine Chapel, personally welcoming them and assuring them: “This is your home!” Continue reading
Sources
- Vassallomalta
- Image: The Telegraph