The more I see of Pope Francis the more I appreciate his moral leadership on how the advanced economies treat their less fortunate citizens.
The Vatican Is Building Showers for the Homeless in Rome
By Noah Rayman
The Vatican plans to build the showers for Rome’s homeless to wash and change, the Vatican Insider, run by the Italy’s La Stampa, reports. It’s also helping ten parishes across Rome provide access to showers.
Pope Francis, TIME’s Person of the Year in 2013, has made poverty alleviation a priority, and this week he called on leaders converging in Australia for the G20 meeting to take responsibility for the “poor and marginalized.”
We know the G-20 pays scant serious attention to poverty alleviation at these meetings. Moral voices from Pope Francis, from other religious traditions, as well as secular leaders should raise a chorus of moral voices for the advanced economies to stop the marginalization for those who's voices are seldom get heard in the G-20's lofty conference halls as the elites gather in the economic stratosphere.
Pope Francis commissions showers for the homeless under St. Peter’s colonnades
By ANDREA TORNIELLI
He is used to acting immediately, without making grand plans, without organizing fundraisers that take months. «In the Gospel, Jesus always uses the word “today”… And it is today that we must respond to people’s needs».
So he decides to visit ten parishes in areas of Rome where many homeless people live. He enters parish halls. If they do not already exist, he asks that showers be built, paid by the Pope’s charity. They are not expensive projects, they are not designed to become big community centers. They are rather a diffused service for the people in the neighborhoods of a city where public restrooms are closed and the homeless cannot go into cafés to use the toilet. Monsignor Krajewski explains that «it is not simple, because it is easier to make sandwiches than run a shower service. We need volunteers, towels, underwear».