Pope Leo Calls for a “Church of the Poor" That "Tears Down Walls" — Shares Mass and Meal with the Homeless and Refugees

At Albano, Pope Leo preached that “peace isn’t comfort,” called for “a Church of the poor,” and then sat down to lunch with the homeless and refugees he’d just served.

If you want to know the kind of pope Leo XIV intends to be, look to his last Sunday holiday in Albano.

He celebrated Mass with refugees, the homeless, and their companions — and then welcomed them to lunch inside the papal summer estate.

About 110 people under the care of diocesan Caritas gathered at Santa Maria della Rotonda, then shared a meal at Borgo Laudato Si’: lasagna, eggplant parmesan, roast veal, and even a “Dolce Leone.”

This wasn’t optics. It was faith lived at a table.

During his homily, Leo presented an argument that should reframe parish life everywhere — but especially the United States:

“Do not distinguish between those who assist and those who are assisted… Each one is a gift to the other. We are the Lord’s Church, a Church of the poor… Let us tear down the walls.”

His appeal is both spiritual and structural: end the quiet divisions we impose between donors and guests, staff and clients, “the served” and “the servers.” Become one body — or stop pretending.

While politicians build walls and Christians chase comfort, Pope Leo serves another master.

His gospel doesn’t promise ease — it promises truth.

The homeless guests had asked Caritas for a chance to shower and to receive clean clothes for the occasion.

Yet Leo — once Robert Prevost, who spent decades in Peru’s poor neighborhoods — knows what the comfortable Church forgets: these guests didn’t need to change for him. The world needed to change for them.

In a world scarred by conflict and inequality, this American pope — the first from our shores — insists that true peace is not comfort, but a relentless pursuit rooted in humility and forgiveness.

Material ease, he warns, dulls our consciences.

This meal wasn’t about charity; it was about dignity. It wasn’t about helping the poor; it was about recognizing them as teachers. Many told organizers they were “eager to talk with him — to share their life stories and hardships.”

They came not as objects of pity but as bearers of wisdom only suffering can teach.

The venue, an environmental education center named for Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, underlined the point: mercy is not an event but an ecosystem.

By centering the dispossessed, Pope Leo does more than model charity; he redefines power itself.

In a world that prizes influence and status, he teaches that the Church’s strength lies not in riches or politics but in its humility before the vulnerable.

This is the Gospel lived out. It’s a call to action for Catholics, Christians, and all people of goodwill: stop seeking comfort and start building a peace that burns away fear, prejudice, and the lies of a broken world.

This is the meal that matters — and we have all been invited.

My read, 100 days in: Francis disrupted to reveal the gospel; Leo is ordering the house so the gospel can breathe.

The homily’s spine — peace without comfort; one Church without partitions; walls down, table set — is no culture war theater.

It is a blueprint for parishes, schools, chancery budgets, and our calendars.

If the Church is to matter in this brutal century, it will be because we learned to welcome Christ in the poor — and then found the courage to sit, listen, and eat with him.

That’s the heart of this meal, and the heart of this project, too.

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