Assisi: the Pope and the poor

(Vatican Radio) As Pope Francis made his way through Assisi today, he stopped for lunch at the Caritas Reception Centre located at St. Mary of the Angels.

He ate there with the homeless and refugees living in the Centre, which aims to provide basic assistance to those who have nowhere else to go. He also took a few moments of private prayer in the tiny, undecorated chapel adjacent to the dining room.

In the run-up to Pope Francis’ visit, Linda Bordoni spoke to Franciscan Friar Vittorio Viola, who is the Caritas Director in Assisi and runs the Caritas Reception Centre there.


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“In a way, we prepare for the Pope’s visit as if we were waiting for someone in the family”. Friar Vittorio said that those living and working at the Centre awaited the Pope as they would await someone who is already familiar, who has proved in words and deeds that he is close to the community. But we also, said Friar Vittorio, recognise the strength of this gesture, the importance of Pope Francis’ decision to have lunch with the homeless and refugees. There will be no special preparations in a practical sense – “we’ll eat as we always do on Sundays, on days of celebration” – but this visit does require spiritual preparation. The Pope’s visit, he said, will be a balm for people who have suffered with their bodies and souls and minds through a life of deprivation and struggle.

The centre is located by the main station of Assisi, an “open door” for anyone seeking refuge. The dining room serves approximately 30 people for lunch and dinner every day, while the maximum sleeping capacity is around 20 – although in the winter months, when life is harder for the homeless, it stretches to welcome more. What’s difficult, said Friar Vittorio, is welcoming as many people as possible without falling into a pattern of simply dispensing assistance, but continuing to restore dignity to those who have lost it. This is a difficult task, he said, but “charity is a school, and we learn every day”.

Only a few days before the Pope’s visit, local police brought a group of Syrian refugee boys to the centre, after they were found just outside the town, probably dumped there by a lorry. This is poverty coming in through your front door, said Friar Vittorio, not just shown on television for you to watch. The fact that the Pope will come and eat here, he said, is worth more than a thousand speeches in raising awareness of this concrete dimension of poverty. I had never hoped that the Pope would come here of all places, Friar Vittorio concludes, but he made it clear that this was his intention from the very first meetings on this trip to Assisi – a gesture which embodies the tangible, concrete dimension of true Christian brotherhood.