Serve the poor to better know God, pope says at soup kitchen

Published: 2007-01-04

ROME (CNS) -- Visiting a shelter and soup kitchen operated by the Rome diocesan Caritas organization, Pope Benedict XVI said offering loving service to others is a way to better know God. "Here one can experience the fact that when we love our neighbor we know God better: In the grotto of Bethlehem, he revealed himself to us in the poverty of a newborn needing everything," the pope said Jan. 4. When the pope arrived at the Caritas complex, it was named for the neighborhood, Colle Oppio, where it is located. But before he left, he had officially renamed it in memory of Pope John Paul II. The pope greeted hundreds of people who had gathered outside the complex before touring the reception center, the kitchen, the dining room and the Nativity scene set up by the center's clients and volunteers. In the courtyard of the soup kitchen, he spoke to some of the 120 volunteers who regularly staff the center and to several hundred of its regular guests.

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