Home Christian News Pope Francis Offers Hope to Poor in Visit to Namesake’s Assisi Home

Pope Francis Offers Hope to Poor in Visit to Namesake’s Assisi Home

“He defended himself with silence and prayer,” Francis said, as a clearly moved Barbarin listened from the pews. “Thank you Cardinal Barbarin for your witness that edifies the church.”

The poor were being hosted for a luncheon offered by the archbishop of Assisi, while the pope was due to return home to the Vatican by midday.

The Argentine Jesuit is the first-ever pope to have named himself after the 13th century friar, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and simplicity. The pope said in the first days of his pontificate that he chose to name himself after St. Francis because he wanted a “poor church, and for the poor.”

Francis was last in Assisi in October 2020, when he signed his latest encyclical “Brothers All” on the tomb of St Francis on the anniversary of the saint’s death.

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Winfield reported from Rome.

This article originally appeared here.