Serving a poor Church, for the poor
Our mission statement
The team that carries Fratello is composed of lay people committed to the Church, originally involved in a great pilgrimage that led several thousand people from the streets and their companions to Rome in 2014 and November 2016.
After meeting them in a historic audience in Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis declared a new World Day: that of the poor!
In collaboration with dioceses and associations throughout the world, Fratello wants to serve at the very heart of the Church, meeting the poorest and giving them their rightful place in the Church: the first!
Our team
Our genesis: the World Day of the Poor
During the “Jubilee for Socially Excluded People”, as the Holy Doors of Mercy were being closed in all the cathedrals and shrines of the world, I had the idea that, as yet another tangible sign of this Extraordinary Holy Year, the entire Church might celebrate, on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, the World Day of the Poor. This would be the worthiest way to prepare for the celebration of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, who identified with the little ones and the poor and who will judge us on our works of mercy (cf. Mt 25:31-46). It would be a day to help communities and each of the baptized to reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel and that, as long as Lazarus lies at the door of our homes (cf. Lk 16:19-21), there can be no justice or social peace. This Day will also represent a genuine form of new evangelization (cf. Mt 11:5) which can renew the face of the Church as She perseveres in her perennial activity of pastoral conversion and witness to mercy.
Excerpt from the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera, November 20, 2016
*The “Jubilee of the socially excluded” is the name the Holy Father gave to our Fratello gathering in November 2016.
What we do
We see ourselves as facilitators of encounters with people in precarious or excluded situations.
To do this, we act on three levels:
- Fratello organizes events and gatherings for and with people in precarious or excluded situations
- Fratello promotes the World Day of the Poor (33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time), decreed by Pope Francis in November 2016 at the end of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
- Fratello offers tools to support dioceses, parishes, associations and congregations in welcoming the poor in their neighborhoods on a daily basis.