Brother Ronald Giannone, OFM Cap., a Capuchin Franciscan Friar of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis and founder and executive director of the Ministry of Caring Inc. that serves the homeless and poor in Delaware, led a delegation recently received by His Holiness Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
     The private audience – off and on again due to the Pope’s health issues – was confirmed only about a week before the ministry group boarded a plane for Rome.
     The seed of their once-in-a-lifetime visit was planted by a longtime friend and ministry benefactor Michael Rienzi, founder/president of Rienzi Foods Inc., based in New York City and Italy.
     After visiting Brother Ronald and his program sites earlier this year, Mr. Rienzi – who has donated truckloads of food for the poor and use of his yacht for fundraisers – brought the ministry’s decades of good work to the attention of Monsignor Hilary C. Franco, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
     Monsignor Franco, in turn, shared the ministry’s efforts with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Parolin, who arranged the papal visit. Mr. Rienzi attended with his nephew and two friends, while Brother Ronald was accompanied by a larger group of devoted, longtime ministry supporters. They included Valerie Biden Owens, who has served more than 40 years on the ministry’s Board of Directors and who gave the pope a letter from her brother, U.S. President Joe Biden.
     The visit was a landmark in their service guided by the principle that the poor should never be treated poorly.
     “From our humble beginning – April 27, 2022, will be 45 years – who would ever have thought that the ministry would be recognized in this way?” Brother Ronald said.
     He gave Pope Francis a photo book sharing the many faces of the poor served by the ministry, produced especially for the occasion. As Pope Francis turned its pages, Brother Ronald said, “he was really delighted.”
     The pope gave each guest a blessed rosary at the end of the visit, which Brother Ronald said he never will forget. “You could tell the moment you were in the presence of Pope Francis that he is a man who is a lover of God and a lover of humanity,” he said. “It was an incredibly great joy to be in his presence.”