
By Carlo Dellaverson, Digital Producer, NBC News
Pope Francis traveled to the bucolic Umbrian hillside town of Assisi on Friday to pay his first visit to the birthplace of his namesake, St. Francis, the Italian patron saint who shed his life of riches to live and pray amongst the poor in the early 13th century.
Continuing in his mission to follow in St. Francis' footsteps, the pontiff began his trip by blessing disabled children, then, addressing the poor from from the room where St. Francis is said to have undressed to show his modesty and reverence to Christ, Francis called on the church to “undress” and “divest ourselves of worldliness,” which he said leads to vanity, arrogance and pride and is the "cancer of society and the enemy of Christ." Read full story




