Homeless men invited to help Pope Francis celebrate birthday
By Tom Kington
December 17, 2013, 1:51 p.m.
ROME -- Pope Francis boosted his down-to-earth image by inviting a group of homeless men to his Vatican residence to help him celebrate his 77th birthday.
The group of men – four, according to some Vatican reports, three according to the Vatican’s newspaper – joined Francis on Tuesday as he gave his morning Mass and then ate breakfast with him.
The Vatican paper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the men, a Pole, a Slovak and a Czech, were sleeping under the portico outside the Vatican’s press center when they were approached by Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who distributes charitable contributions for the pope.
“Would you like to come to Pope Francis’ birthday party?” Krajewski reportedly asked them. “After a moment of bewilderment and wonder, they started packing up their beds, pieces of cardboard and covers which were arranged to protect them from the bitter cold of the Roman night.”
The three men, who are in their 40s, one carrying his dog, put their bags into the archbishop’s car and climbed in, with the dog in the middle for the ride through the Vatican gates to join Francis and the staff of his residence, who also joined him for Mass.
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-homeless-pope-francis-birthday-20131217,0,2901963.story#axzz2nmb6WaJl
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