While donation campaigns and charitable contributions for the needy are important, true Christian charity involves a more personal touch, Pope Francis has said.
Coming face to face with the poor may pose a challenge and tempt people to turn the other way and give in to "the habit of fleeing from needy people and not approach them or disguise a bit the reality of the needy," the Pope said during his general audience in St Peter's Square.
"Poverty in the abstract does not challenge us. It may make us think, it may make us complain, but when you see poverty in the flesh of a man, a woman or a child; this (certainly) challenges us!" he said.
