The origin of this day established by Pope Francis and Cabrini Mission Foundation activity.
On the occasion of World Day of the Poor we share first, how the World Day for the Poor established by Pope Francis came about; then some lines on Cabrini Mission Foundation, who helps for the most needy, based in New York for the Guadalupe Province.
This year’s fifth event. This year Pope Francis wanted to title it with a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew 14:7 “You will always have the poor with you”.
The World Day of the Poor, established by Pope Francis with the aim of raising awareness of listening to the cry of the poor and suffering, will be celebrated on Sunday 14 November 2021. In preparation for this moment that involves the whole Church, the Pope will visit Assisi on Friday 12 November, in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Francis will meet privately with a group of 500 poor people from different parts of Europe and will spend a moment of listening and prayer with them.
How does this feast come about? What gestures accompany this day? How does this feast fit into the Pontificate of Pope Francis? Let us try to answer…with the help of Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself.
“At the end of the Jubilee of Mercy I wanted to offer the Church the World Day of the Poor, so that throughout the world Christian communities may become more and better a concrete sign of Christ’s charity for the last and the neediest. To the other World Days instituted by my Predecessors, which have now become a tradition in the life of our communities, I wish to add this one, which brings to the whole an exquisitely evangelical element of completion, that is, Jesus’ predilection for the poor”, so we read in the Message of the Holy Father Francis for the First World Day of the Poor.
The Holy Father continues: “I would like Christian communities, in the week preceding the World Day of the Poor, to commit themselves to creating many moments of encounter and friendship, of solidarity and concrete help. On this Sunday, if there are poor people living in our neighbourhood who are looking for protection and help, let us approach them: it will be a propitious moment to meet the God we seek. According to the teaching of the Scriptures (cf. Gen 18:3-5; Heb 13:2), let us welcome them as privileged guests at our table; they can be teachers who help us to live our faith more consistently. I ask my brother bishops, priests, deacons – who by vocation have the mission of supporting the poor -, consecrated persons, associations, movements and the vast world of voluntary work to commit themselves so that this World Day of the Poor may establish a tradition that will be a concrete contribution to evangelisation in the contemporary world. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource on which to draw in order to welcome and live the essence of the Gospel”.
Source: https://www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/notizie/societa/come-nasce-la-giornata-mondiale-dei-poveri–52334
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Cabrini Mission Foundation Activity
Established in 1998, the Cabrini Mission Foundation exists to respond to the needs of society by supporting programmes of healing, teaching and care sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC), the international religious order founded by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in 1880. Indeed, the foundation responds with boldness, urgency and courage to the unmet needs of the most vulnerable and marginalised in society.
Cabrini Mission Foundation website: https://cutt.ly/Sm0Dw22
