Pope offers hope to poor on visit to namesake’s home of Assisi

Pope Francis attends a meeting of listening and prayer inside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi, central Italy, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Pope Francis met a group of 500 poor people from different parts of Europe ahead of the fifth World Day of the Poor on Sunday. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

Pope Francis has travelled to the Italian hilltop town of his namesake for the fifth time in his pontificate to honour the poorest and most marginalised and urge that they be welcomed and cared for by the church.

In one of his first outings in Italy since the coronavirus pandemic, Francis greeted schoolchildren and some of the 500 people taken by Catholic charity groups to Assisi to join him in marking the Catholic Church’s world day of the poor.