Pope Francis, "Sit and eat with them on the street."

The Associated Press, Vatican bureau reported yesterday that when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was known to sneak out at night and break bread with the homeless, sit with them literally on the street and eat with them, as part of his aim to share the plight of the poor and let them know someone cared.

"The Holy Father told me at the beginning: `You can sell your desk. You don't need it. You need to get out of the Vatican. Don't wait for people to come ringing. You need to go out and look for the poor,'" Krajewski said. And so Don Corrado, as he likes to be called, hits the streets of Rome and beyond.

"This is the concept: Be with people and share their lives, even for 15, 30 minutes, an hour," Krajewski said.  Pope Francis, (the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio) "would go out at night in Buenos Aires, not just to find people, talk with them, or buy them something to eat ... He would eat with them. He would sit with them and eat with them on the street. This is what he wants from me."

The existence of the Vatican Almoner dates back centuries: It is mentioned in a papal bull from the 13th-century Pope Innocent III, and Pope Gregory X, who ruled from 1271-1276, organized it into an official Holy See office for papal charity.

Krajewski demurred when asked if Francis himself had slipped out of the Vatican on his own - "Next question!" he said. But there was a clear suggestion that the pope may very well have snuck out before Vatican security got wind of it.

According to Krajewski, "Being an almoner, it has to cost me something so that it can change me," he said. He contrasted such alms-giving with, say, the unnamed cardinal who once boasted about always giving two euros to a beggar on the street near the Vatican.

"I told him, `Eminence, this isn't being an almoner. You might be able to sleep at night, but being an almoner has to cost you. Two euros is nothing for you. Take this poor person, bring him to your big apartment that has three bathrooms, let him take a shower - and your bathroom will stink for three days - and while he's showering make him a coffee and serve it to him, and maybe give him your sweater. This is being an almoner."

www.HomelessinAmerica.blogspot.com

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