Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A PopeTrip To the "'School' of Charity"

For everything he's placed aside, apparently the Pope's settled on a new piece of regalia....

Just kidding, of course – the garland seen above was a welcoming gift from the Missionaries of Charity, whose shelter and soup-kitchen within the Vatican walls got a Francis-visit last night (and, perhaps, some take-home food for a pontiff suddenly deprived of a place where he can cook).

During his stop at the "Gift of Mary" house, the pontiff gave his now-trademark "three words," taking aim yet again at "a wild capitalism [which] has taught the logic of profit at all cost, of giving to get, of exploitation without looking at the persons... and we see the results in the crisis we are living!"

By contrast, "an open hospitality is lived here, without distinctions of nationality or religion, according to the teaching of Jesus," Francis said.

"We must recover the whole sense of gift, of gratuitousness, of solidarity."

Currently marking 25 years since John Paul II called the community founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to establish it, the house feeds 60 people a day in addition to providing overnight space for 25 women in need.

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