Vatican News reports that Pope Francis has dedicated a Vatican ambulance to serve the poor who sleep rough on the streets of Rome.
Reportedly, on Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis blessed a Vatican ambulance which will serve the poor of Rome.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner was given the responsibility for the ambulance within the Office of Papal Charities.
The Holy See Press Office statement says the ambulance belongs to the Vatican's fleet and has SCV (Vatican) license plates.
This ambulance will now serve “the poorest, who remain almost invisible to Institutions.”
The statement recalls the “sad ordeal of Modesta Valenti, an elderly homeless woman to whom the city of Rome has dedicated a street.”
On 31 January 1983, after a long, cold night sleeping rough outside Termini train station, she felt ill.
“Several passers-by called an ambulance, which declined to assist her because of her poor hygiene,” reads the statement. “After 4 long hours, several hospitals refused to take responsibility for her. Modesta was left on the ground, suffering. She died before an ambulance finally arrived.”
The Papal Almoner is also responsible for a mobile clinic used to provide care to the poor in Rome’s poorer neighborhoods, as well as the Mother of Mercy Clinic, set up in the Colonnade of St. Peter’s Square which offers first-aid care to homeless people in the area.
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