Pope celebrates Mass for local homeless people and invites them to lunch

Pope Leo XIV (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Pope Leo XIV spent the last Sunday of his summer holiday with several dozen homeless and poor people – and the church volunteers who help them, celebrating a special Mass and inviting them into the Vatican’s lakeside estate for a lunch of lasagne and roast veal.

Leo celebrated Mass in the St Mary sanctuary of Albano, near the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo where he is on holiday.

The Mass was attended by around 110 people cared for by the local Caritas church charity, and the volunteers who run the diocese’s shelters, clinics and social service offices.

In his homily, Leo celebrated the “fire of charity” that had brought them together.

Pope Leo XIV is cheered by faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

“And I encourage you not to distinguish between those who assist and those who are assisted, between those who seem to give and those who seem to receive, between those who appear poor and those who feel they have something to offer in terms of time, skills, and help,” he said.

In the church, he said, everyone is poor and precious, and all share the same dignity.

Leo, the former Robert Prevost, spent most of his adult life working with the poor people of Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and then as bishop.

Former parishioners and church workers say he greatly reinforced the work of the local Caritas charity, opening soup kitchens and shelters for migrants and rallying funds to build oxygen plants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Later on Sunday, Leo was to preside over a luncheon with the guests at the Borgo Laudato Si’, the Vatican’s environmental educational centre in the gardens of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.

The centre is named for Pope Francis’ 2015 landmark environmental encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be).

According to the Albano diocese, local caterers were providing a menu of lasagne, eggplant parmesan and roast veal. For dessert, the menu called for fruit salad and sweets named for the pope, “Dolce Leone”.