The Pope will celebrate this Saturday, December 17, his 86th birthday, with an Italian homeless man, a Jesuit from Syria and a solidarity entrepreneur. The first is Gian Piero, known as ‘Wué’, who lives in the Italian town of Viarregio, in Tuscany, and who received last year the National Kindness Award for his solidarity with other homeless people.
This was confirmed to Europa Press by the Commission of the Cross (Comitato della Croce) which conferred Gian Piero the distinction in 2021 because for 9 years, when he arrived in the Italian region, he has been dedicated to collecting pennies from alms to do the shopping for other homeless people.
«We will accompany him to the Vatican and he will be received by the Pope on the 17th, which is his birthday and he wants to celebrate it with the last ones,» Fiorenzo Tomassi, of the Italian organization, confirmed in early December. In addition, ‘Wué’ will also «receive a special award for his altruism».
Gian Piero, who is now 75 years old, lives in a small warehouse that has been given to him as a home. He used to work as a cook in a luxury hotel, but was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that forced him to give it all up. Lately, he has been collecting euro cents to buy groceries for other homeless people like him.
In reality, he collects the pennies that passers-by don’t want because they are too heavy in their pockets and transforms them into food for the needy. Once he has collected the money, he takes it to a store whose owners sell him basic products -such as pasta, coffee or cereals- much cheaper than in any other store. According to the organization, «in his best times he has managed to collect up to 1,100 euros».
Also present at the event will be the Franciscan Hanna Jallouf, who has devoted himself to the poor of Syria during these more than ten years of war, and the businessman from Verona (northern Italy) Silvano Pedrollo, who allocates a considerable part of the profits of his company to help and assist the poorest of the poor in several countries in Africa, India and Latin America, building schools, wells and sanitary facilities in the most abandoned areas.
To the three, Francis will give a special gift to praise their gratitude for how they live charity towards the poorest of the poor, as reported in a statement by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity. With this gesture, the Pontiff «intends to commemorate Mother Teresa of Calcutta and will take place in the presence of about 20 sisters and 20 people hosted by the Missionaries of Charity in their dormitories».
At present, there are more than 6,000 Missionaries of Charity who continue their work on behalf of the poor in 762 Houses of Charity, distributed in 139 nations.
MOBILITY PROBLEMS Francis maintains his mobility problems linked to osteoarthritis in his right knee, which has forced him to move around in a wheelchair, although this has not prevented him from maintaining his active agenda and he even plans to carry out international trips, such as the one he has announced for the end of January to Africa.
Specifically, he will travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a visit cancelled in June by medical prescription precisely because of his health problems and which he will resume from January 31 to February 5, 2023. The pontiff himself has revealed on several occasions that he is not considering surgery at this time because in 2021 he had problems with anesthesia when he underwent colon surgery for a diverticulitis problem. In addition, Francis plans to travel to Lisbon (Portugal) in August to participate in World Youth Day (WYD).
In other years, the Pontiff has spent his birthday with sick children admitted to the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital and also sharing lunch with poor people at the Vatican. This year, however, he has decided to celebrate the day with the Italian homeless man, whom he will receive in a private audience early Saturday morning.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
