Rome’s Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Pediactric Hospital reiterated April 19, 2018, that it is willing to accept baby Alfie Evans as a patient and bear the expenses for his care, according to Vatican News.
Pope Francis met with Tom Evans, Alfie’s father, in Casa Santa Marta before the Holy Father’s April 18, 2018, general audience. As reported in an exclusive ZENIT interview, the Pope told Alfie’s father “no child’s life should be taken away from him.”
In that interview with Zenit, Evans stressed that Alfie is doing well and showing more signs of life, especially after receiving his sacraments. Pope Francis has made strong appeals to protect the life of Alfie Evans. At the conclusion of today’s audience, the Pope pleaded for Alfie underscoring “the only master of life is God.” During his Sunday Regina Caeli, Pope Francis similarly appealed, saying: “Let us pray so that every sick person is always respected in his dignity and cared for in a way adapted to his condition, with the harmonious contribution of the family, of doctors and of other health workers, with great respect for life.”
The Pope also tweeted last week, stressing that everything be done to help protect Alfie’s life and to make the parents’ suffering be heard.
Little Alfie has been at the center of a legal battle in the UK to keep him alive. Since December 2016, Alfie has been living with an unidentified degenerative neurological condition and has stayed in the hospital. Despite some signs of improvement, however, the hospital and courts have been saying to take him off life support, against the parents’ wishes.
