One of his best gifts to us all this year has been the decision by Pope Francis to inaugurate an annual World Day of the Poor. Behind the initiative is the pope’s desire to keep alive the spirit of his special Year of Mercy. This year’s celebration on November 19 may have crept up unnoticed until it was upon us. Some 4000 homeless people were invited to the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, and many of them to the lunches that followed at venues around the Vatican, including 1500 who sat down with the pope as his special guests.