Cardinal is moved to see the poor dismissing Pope Francis: “He looked into them in the eye”

Upon arrival in Rome to participate in the funeral of Pope Francis and the conclave that will choose Pedro’s next successor, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, Archbishop of Santiago (Chile) was impressed by the number of homeless people who came to say goodbye to saying goodbye to the remains of the Holy Father.

“Do not forget the poor,” was the phrase that on March 13, 2013, Cardinal Hummes pronounced in the ear of then Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, when the result of the vote was known from which Pope was chosen.

And he didn’t. In his 12 years of pontificate, Francisco not only summoned the clergy to be “shepherd smells”, in contact with his people and especially with the humblest, but lived it in his own flesh, with concrete actions of closeness.

From the beginning of his papacy, with the gesture of celebrating the funeral of one of the beggars he lived in the streets of the Vatican, the installation of showers and the opening of a barbershop for the homeless, Francisco was evidencing his preference for the poorest, who never denied their attention.

So much so that, in November 2017, the Pontiff celebrated the first world day of the poor, in conclusion of the year of mercy, and shared lunch with more than 1,500 poor people from Rome and different cities in the world. Since then, the day was held annually, remembering the importance of loving “with works” to the most needy and highlighting the dignity of those who have less.

The lunches with the poor were a custom of the Holy Father: in 2013 he did it in Assisi, with people who received assistance from Caritas, and in 2018 in Sicily, with 160 people who were part of the “hope and charity mission”.

This priority for the poorest did not escape their speeches, homilies and documents, being the encyclical Fratelli Tutti a great exponent of the concern for helping the fallen, focusing on the figure of the good Samaritan.

“He looked them in the eye”

In a video recorded in the Plaza de San Pedro, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, who is in Rome to attend the funeral of the Holy Father and to cast his vote in the next conclave, was moved by the number of humble people who arrive at every hour to give his last goodbye to the Pope who did not forget them.

“I am impressed by the number of people in street situations, beggars, who have come to greet the Holy Father. He looked into them in the eye, helped them, dignified them, worried about them,” he recalled.

“I think it is a very important legacy that leaves us: work hard, all, government, entrepreneurs, all, the church … to overcome poverty that is a scourge of the 21st century. I am really moved how people so humble, are here for hours to see it for the last time, pray for it and pay a deserved tribute,” he concluded.

The poor will wait for the Pope in Santa María la Mayor

“The poor occupy a privileged place in the heart of God. So also in the heart and the teaching kilometers from the Basilica of San Pedro.