This was a papal visit that could only begin this way. When Pope Francis travelled to Assisi this morning to pay homage to the Umbrian saint whose name he has taken, he began his visit in the Serafico Institute for severely mentally and physically disabled children, situated just outside this lovely hilltop town. As the Pope read his address in the institute, he did so to the accompaniment of a chaotic cacophony from the Serafico residents. At times, it was difficult to hear the Pope speak, so loud was the noise from the young patients. At a certain point, the Pope abandoned his prepared text to say that Jesus is making himself heard too, amongst the cries of the children: “These children are the very wounds of Jesus, they need to be listened to and to be recognised. Jesus is hidden in their wounds.” Just one day after he called the Lampedusa boat people tragedy in which at least 130 people drowned yesterday “a shameful disgrace”, the Pope again spoke out against a modern world in which the culture of “rejection”, of the “throwaway” predominates. The victims of this “culture”, he said, are nearly always “the weakest and the most fragile”.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 11:00:31 +0000
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