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A St Vincent de Paul Society delegation from Australia has visited Rome as part of an international Vincentian pilgrimage that included an audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, and the symbolic gifting of a key to a new house.
The global Vincentian family had brought together homeless families from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Syria, Senegal, Italy and Australia – each of whom had received a home through the ‘13 Houses’ Jubilee Project.
The Australian contingent consisted of Nadia, a Bangladeshi-Australian mother, and her 18-month-old daughter, Alisha from Western Sydney.
Pat Garcia, a former chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, was among the delegation to Rome.
“It was a moving experience to watch Pope Leo hand Nadia a symbolic bronze key to a permanent home,” Pat said.
The key was designed by sculptor Timothy Schmalz, well known for his work “Homeless Jesus” that depicted Jesus as a homeless person sleeping on a park bench.
“The key was oversized, weighty, ceremonial. But what it symbolised was even heavier: dignity, stability, hope,” he wrote in The Catholic Weekly.
“In a world where 1.6 billion people are homeless or living in slums, their stories represent millions more. The statistics are staggering – 122,000 Australians are homeless today – but statistics rarely bring you to tears. People do,” he said.
Pat gifted the Pontiff a Wallabies rugby scarf.
“It makes me smile every time I think about it,” Mr Garcia told the Daily Telegraph recently.
“You don’t expect the Bishop of Rome to have such a uniquely Australian connection, but the idea that he now owns a Wallabies scarf is pretty special.”
It’s hoped the American Pope – who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and is an avid White Sox baseball fan – may now take an interest in rugby.
The 13 Houses Campaign was launched in 2018 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of St Vincent de Paul’s work. To date, the project has provided housing and assistance to over 10,000 people in 70 countries.
St Vincent’s Health Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society are CHA Members
