VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis will be offering several hundred poor people -- homeless, migrants, unemployed -- a lunch of gnocchi, veal and tiramisu when he celebrates his first World Day of the Poor in the spirit of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.
Francis begins the events Sunday with a Mass for an estimated 4,000 people in St. Peter's Basilica. Afterward, some 1,200 will join him for lunch in the Vatican's audience hall, where they'll be serenaded by the Vatican gendarmes' band and a children's choir. The rest will have lunch at nearby pontifical colleges.
Giuseppe Capurso, a homeless man from Bari, says he'll be there for the event, even if he doesn't expect much. He says: "I am like in tunnel, where I can never see the light at the end."
