"We want to help people feel the joy of Christmas," Sabine Bou Serhal, 22, a chief for the group, told Catholic News Service.

Catholic advocates for poor people decried a new federal rule that tightens work requirements which determine eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and is expected to force hundreds of thousands to lose food stamps.

The basis of the index's measurement is the United Nations' Human Development Report

“Wearing the label ‘Christian’ or ‘Catholic’ is not enough to belong to Jesus. We need to speak the same language as Jesus: that of love,” Pope Francis said as he celebrated the third World Day of the Poor.

“The marginalization painfully experienced by millions of persons cannot go on for long," wrote Francis.

“There are circles and sectors that present themselves as ilustrados (enlightened) — they sequester the proclamation of the gospel through a distorted reasoning that divides the world between ‘civilized’ and ‘barbaric,'” Francis said. "On this basis, contempt can develop for people considered to be second rate,” he said, adding that “all this also emerged during the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.”