VATICAN (CNS): On November 16, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica for the Jubilee of the Poor, gathering thousands of migrants, refugees, unhoused people, the unemployed, as well as members of the trans community.
Addressing those present and the many more watching from St Peter’s Square, the pope assured them, “In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us.” He added, “He reveals himself as the one who takes our side.”
Volunteers from Vatican, diocesan, and Rome-based Catholic charities attended alongside those they serve, joined by international pilgrims brought by the French charity Fratello.
The Vatican estimated 6,000 people attended Mass inside the basilica, with another 20,000 in the square. By the time Pope Leo led the Angelus prayer, the crowd had swelled to 40,000.
After the Angelus, the Vincentian Fathers, marking the 400th anniversary of their foundation, hosted a lunch for the pope’s guests. Members of the Daughters of Charity and Vincentian volunteers served a meal consisting of vegetable lasagne, chicken cutlets and vegetables, followed by baba, a Neapolitan dessert.
The Vatican estimated 6,000 people attended Mass inside the basilica, with another 20,000 in the square. By the time Pope Leo led the Angelus prayer, the crowd had swelled to 40,000
They also distributed 1,500 backpacks filled with food and hygiene products. Before Mass, Father Tomaž Mavric, superior general of the Vincentians, presented Pope Leo with symbolic house keys from the “13 Houses Campaign”—a global housing initiative inspired by St. Vincent de Paul’s 1643 project to shelter abandoned children in Paris.
In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the recurring theme of God’s concern for the marginalised: “The Bible is woven with this golden thread that recounts the story of God, who is always on the side of the little ones, orphans, strangers and widows.”
He explained, “In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God’s closeness reaches the summit of love,” making Christ’s presence “gladness and jubilee for the poorest.” He emphasised that Jesus came “to proclaim the good news to the poor and to preach the year of the Lord’s favour.”
While thanking Catholics who support the poor, Pope Leo said he wanted those experiencing hardship to hear “the irrevocable words of the Lord Jesus himself: ‘Dilexi te,’ I have loved you.” He added, “Before our smallness and poverty, God looks at us like no one else and loves us with eternal love. And his Church, even today, hopes to be ‘mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice.’”
In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us.
Pope Leo XIV
The pope highlighted that poverty comes in many forms—material, moral, and spiritual—but loneliness afflicts many, especially young people.
“It challenges us to look at poverty in an integral way, because while it is certainly necessary at times to respond to urgent needs, we also must develop a culture of attention, precisely in order to break down the walls of loneliness,” he said. “Let us, then, be attentive to others, to each person, wherever we are, wherever we live.”
Calling on world leaders to “listen to the cry of the poorest,” Pope Leo insisted, “There can be no peace without justice, and the poor remind us of this in many ways: through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate.”
