For this papal trip, homeless group's traditional send-off for pontiff as he departs has twist

ROME (OSV News) — It’s now become a tradition.

A group of homeless people who sleep underneath Bernini’s Colonnade in Rome have a special task on the day Pope Francis departs from the Vatican for his apostolic trips: They greet the pope and wish him “buon viaggio,” or “good trip,” before he leaves Santa Marta and boards his plane to go to other parts of the world, near and far.

On Sept. 26, however, as the pope was departing to Luxembourg, not only were the homeless there but so was a little barking companion.

“I told a group of our poor the night before that I would invite them for a cappuccino and cornetto in the morning. Meeting the Holy Father was a surprise for them,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, told OSV News.

“One of the poor I asked to greet the pope and say goodbye brought a dog with him,” the cardinal said.

“Swiss Guards didn’t want to let him in, but I told them a dog is part of the family,” he said. “And that both the poor man and his dog have an invitation from the Holy Father.”

The dog caused much amusement as he barked at the Holy Father at first only to turn very friendly right after.

“He wanted to jump on the Holy Father’s wheelchair,” the cardinal said.

It’s a tradition for the cardinal to bring the needy sleeping underneath the colonnade to Pope Francis when he departs for his apostolic trips. He’s been doing it since he became the pope’s almoner in August 2013, only five months after Pope Francis’ election.

“The poor are the face of Jesus, it’s the closest thing to the Gospel you can do — to put them first, to invite them to greet the successor of Peter,” the cardinal said.

“And breakfast is important too, we didn’t forget about it!” he said. “After the Holy Father departed Santa Marta, we had the promised cappuccino and cornettos.”