'I smell' confession leads Pope Francis to install showers for homeless at St Peter's Square 
 
 Updated 
 
 Pope Francis has ordered the installation of showers for the homeless next to St Peter's Square after a street dweller declared himself too smelly to eat with a bishop. 
 
 In an initiative sparked by one of his closest aides' encounter with a homeless person on the streets of Rome, the pontiff has given his blessing to an upgrade of public toilets intended to serve the millions of pilgrims and visitors who flock to the Vatican every year. 
 
 Work will begin next year to install three showers to enable the homeless in the area to wash themselves and their clothes just metres from where the Pope lives in his modest apartment. 
 
 The Basilica exists in order to keep the Body of Christ, and we serve Jesus's suffering body by serving the poor. Archbishop Konrad Krajewski 
 
 Similar initiatives are already underway at 10 parishes across Rome at the bidding of Konrad Krajewski, a Polish bishop who currently serves as the Pope's official almoner - the person in charge of delivering charity to the poor. 
 
 Mr Krajewski, who remains widely known as father Konrad despite his lofty position, launched his initiative after a chance meeting with a homeless man from Sardinia, on one of the main streets leading to St Peter's in October. 
 
 The archbishop had just come from hearing confessions in the Church of the Holy Spirit and was strolling down the Via della Conciliazione when he bumped into the man. 
 
 "He told me that he was turning 50 that day and that he had been living on the street for 10 years," Mr Krajewski recalled in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa. 
 
 Moved by the meeting, Mr Krajewski issued an impromptu invitation to dinner which his new acquaintance initially declined, saying simply: "Puzzo" (I Smell). 
 
 Clerical persuasion prevailed however and over a Chinese meal, the man explained that while Rome was good at ensuring the homeless do not go hungry, staying clean was more complicated. 
 
 Mr Krajewski promptly sprung into action. 
 
 A construction firm volunteered to install the showers in parishes that did not already have them and a substantial donation from celebrated Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also helped. 
 
 The bishop insisted he did not care if well-off visitors to the Vatican did not like sharing the toilets with the homeless. 
 
 "The Basilica exists in order to keep the Body of Christ, and we serve Jesus's suffering body by serving the poor," he said, echoing Pope Francis's statement on his appointment that he wanted the church to be a "poor church, for the poor." 
 
 AFP 
 
 Topics: religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, homelessness, holy-see-vatican-city-state 
 
 First posted ||||| A man holds up a picture of the newly-elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, outside a souvenir shop in Castelgandolfo, near Rome March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I is presented with a South American mate drink as he conducts a general audience in the Paul VI hall for members of the media at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I waves as he leaves a general audience in the Paul VI hall for members of the media at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I leaves with security after a general audience in the Paul VI hall for members of the media at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I greets a man with a guide dog as he conducts a general audience in the Paul VI hall for members of the media at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I passes a Swiss Guard as he leaves the Paul VI hall after an audience for members of the media, at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I arrives in the Paul VI hall during an audience for members of the media, at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I greets Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi (L) as he conducts a general audience in the Paul VI hall for members of the media at the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 Pope Francis I prays before the replica of the Grotto of Lourdes at the Vatican Gardens in the Vatican March 16, 2013. 
 
 VATICAN CITY Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said on Saturday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor. 
 
 Francis, speaking mostly off-the-cuff and smiling often, made his comments in an audience for journalists where he explained why he chose to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, a symbol of peace, austerity and poverty. 
 
 He called Francis "the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man", and added: "Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor." 
 
 Since his election on Wednesday as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years, Francis has signaled a sharp change of style from his predecessor, Benedict, and has laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife. 
 
 He thanked the thousands of journalists who had covered his election but invited them to "always try to better understand the true nature of the Church, and even its journey in the world, with its virtues and with its sins". 
 
 He urged journalists to seek "truth, goodness and beauty" in the world and in the Church. 
 
 Francis has set a forceful moral tone and given clear signs already that he will bring a new broom to the crisis-hit papacy, favoring humility and simplicity over pomp and grandeur. 
 
 He recalled how on Wednesday night, as he was receiving more and more votes in the conclave, the cardinal sitting next to him, Claudio Hummes of Brazil, comforted him "as the situation became dangerous". 
 
 After the voting reached the two-thirds majority that elected him, applause broke out. Hummes, 78, then hugged and kissed him and told him "Don't forget the poor", the pope recounted, often gesturing with his hands. 
 
 "That word entered here," he added, pointing to his head. 
 
 While the formal voting continued, the pope recalled: "I thought of wars .... and Francis (of Assisi) is the man of peace, and that is how the name entered my heart, Francis of Assisi, for me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects others." 
 
 It was the latest indication that the pope wanted the worldwide Church to take on an austere style. 
 
 On the night he was elected he shunned the papal limousine and travelled on a bus with other cardinals. He went to the Church-run hotel where he had been staying before the conclave and insisted on paying the bill. 
 
 Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, has also urged Argentines not to make costly trips to Rome to see him but to give the money to the poor instead. 
 
 RESPECT NATURE 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226, renounced his family's fortune for a life of charity and poverty and is also revered by environmentalists because he loved nature and preached to animals. 
 
 "Right now, we don't have a very good relation with creation," the pope said. 
 
 He said that Catholics should remember that Jesus, not the pope, was the centre of the Church. At the end of his address, switching from Italian into Spanish, he also made a gesture to non-believers and members of other religions. 
 
 "I told you I would willingly give you a blessing. Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless all of you," he said. 
 
 CONTRAST WITH BENEDICT 
 
 The Vatican has strongly denied accusations by some critics in Argentina that Francis stayed silent during systematic human rights abuses by the former military dictatorship in his home country. 
 
 Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters on Friday that the accusations "must be clearly and firmly denied". 
 
 Critics of Bergoglio, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, allege he failed to protect priests who challenged the dictatorship earlier in his career, during the 1976-1983 "dirty war", and that he has said too little about the complicity of the Church during military rule. 
 
 The new pope's outgoing nature and sense of humor differs notably from the much more formal Benedict, who last month became the first pope in 600 years to resign. 
 
 On Friday, Francis hugged cardinals, slapped them on the back, broke into animated laughter and blessed religious objects one cardinal pulled out of a plastic shopping bag. 
 
 The Vatican said Francis would visit Benedict on March 23 at the papal summer residence south of Rome where the former pontiff will live until he moves into a convent in the Vatican which is undergoing renovations. 
 
 (Editing by Mark Trevelyan) ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.
– Pope Francis made headlines last year when he said that he would like a "poor church, and for the poor." Now, after a man declined an invitation to dine with a bishop because, the man said simply, "puzzo"—or "I smell"—the pope is installing three public showers at St. Peter's Square to allow the homeless and any pilgrim or visitor to wash themselves or their clothes. Konrad Krajewski, a Polish bishop who's in charge of delivering charity to the poor, was apparently strolling down the Via della Conciliazione after hearing confessions in the Church of the Holy Spirit when he crossed paths with a homeless man. "He told me that he was turning 50 that day and that he had been living on the street for 10 years," the bishop, affectionately called "Father Konrad," tells Italian newspaper La Stampa. Though the man initially declined an invitation to dinner, the two eventually talked over Chinese food, and the man said that while he found Rome to be good about feeding the hungry, it was difficult to find a place to wash. The pope gave Konrad the go-ahead to add showers, and a construction firm volunteered to install them, including one just feet from the pope's apartment. Tenor Andrea Bocelli also pitched in with a "substantial" donation, reports ABC News. As for whether the well-heeled dislike sharing toilets with the homeless, the bishop says, "The Basilica exists in order to keep the Body of Christ, and we serve Jesus' suffering body by serving the poor." (See why Pope Francis also recently called for the end of life sentences.)