Pope Francis has asked those in charge of the Church’s charitable institutions to ask themselves if they are disgusted by poverty – challenging them to get their hands dirty as this is a sign of ‘concrete love’.“Am I disgusted by poverty, by the poverty of others?” he asked at a meeting with representatives of socio-charitable assistance centres at the São Vicente de Paulo Parish Social Centre in Serafina, Lisbon, as part of the World Youth Day marathon of fixtures, suggesting that people who are, are essentially leading “distilled and useless lives”. Then changing the tone, and thanking the institutions for their work, he said: “If you get discouraged, take a glass of water and keep going…”
