(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 13.02.2023).- On Monday morning, February 13, Pope Francis received — in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace –, the members of the Italian Federation of Rare Diseases, accompanied by individuals, especially children, afflicted by some of these diseases.
The Holy Father preferred to talk with the children and handed out his prepared address at the end. He wished to have the children close to him and gave each of them a Rosary, saying:
Sometimes we prepare things to express all our ideas… but the reality speaks better than ideas. [The children] gave the real address, approaching naturally, giving the best of themselves: a smile, a curiosity, stretching out their hand to take the Rosary … They aren’t foolish — none of them! They are able to do it well. And this was today’s sermon for us. That’s why I thought that to continue speaking, after this living sermon, made no sense. I’ll give the text to the President and she will then make it known. And, after the blessing, I will say goodbye to all of you. This is the text I referred to, but the real sermon was the one they gave us, with their limitations, with their diseases, but they made us understand that there is always an opportunity to grow and to go ahead.
Pope Francis concluded by thanking the participants. “Thank you, thank you for this. That was the reward for you, to see how these children fared.”
