Mother Teresa

May 22, 2013. (Romereports.com) The Pope took some time to visit the Missionaries of Charity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Vatican’s' Soup Kitchen. It's here that a group of sisters take care of the poor and needy day in and day out, just a few steps away from St. Peter's Square.   

“This day takes us back 25 years, when on May 21, 1988 Blessed John Paul II entrusted the 'Dono di Maria' house to Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta,” said sister Mary Prema Pierick, the Superior of the Missionaries of Charity.


POPE FRANCIS
“This structure, was wished and opened by Blessed John Paul II, now these are actions of saints, actions of blesseds. John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Holiness has been here. How beautiful is that!"

The Pope also met with roughly 100 people who often receive help and support from the missionary sisters, volunteers and collaborators. The Pope described it as not just a home, but a family, and a school of charity.  

POPE FRANCIS
“This is a home, and when I say home I mean a place of welcome, a house with a human environment where one can feel at ease, a place to meet others, to feel included in one place, in a community.”

He then added that the home is a gift for the Church, but those who are helped also bring a gift to the Church. The Pope explained that it's in the faces of the needy that one can see Jesus. 

POPE FRANCIS
“We must recover the meaning of gifts, of gratuity, solidarity. Extreme capitalism teaches the logic of profit at all costs, of giving to receive, exploitation without considering the person. These are the results we see in the crisis we are living.”
The rosary was then prayed before our Lady of Fatima, by the Pope and the sisters of charity. 

As a gift, the Pope gave the home some gifts, among them a basket of food and an image of St. Francis of Assisi. 

He greeted people one by one, and when needed, he also spoke in Spanish. 

“It's a pleasure to meet you.”

POPE FRANCIS
“Where are you from?”

“I am Italian but I lived in Argentina for 40 years, in Mendoza.”

PAPA FRANCISCO
“You're a Mendozan!”

“It's a pleasure, nice to meet you.”
“It's a pleasure Holy Father, we are mother and daughter.”

POPE FRANCIS
“From Mendoza?”

“Mendozens from Mendoza”

POPE FRANCIS 
“Do you miss Mendoza's wine?”

With this visit, Pope Francis joins the tradition his predecessors began. Benedict XVI visited Rome's Missionaries of Charity in 2008 and John Paul II in 1988.