Pope Francis on April 15, 2018, made a pastoral visit to the Parish of Saint Paul of the Cross at Corviale, located on the far west edge of Rome.
During the visit, he will meet with the catechism children, the elderly, the sick and the poor of the neighborhood; heard confessions and presided over the Mass.
The Holy Father accepted the invitation addressed to him by the parish priest, Fr. Roberto Cassano, who met him last November, during Mass at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. At that time, Fr. Cassano and the Pope discussed the area around the parish.
“He told me that he knew the situation and that it would give him pleasure to come and meet us,” says Father Roberto in an interview with the diocesan weekly Roma Sette. “I would never have expected that he would come after only five months. We are all very happy and moved.»
The parish serves the Corviale housing development, which houses 6,000 of the poor and is generally pointed to as a failed project of urban planning.
