Pope confirms sick boy before Jubilee audience
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis
administered the Sacrament of Confirmation on a seriously ill young man before
his Saturday Jubilee
Audience in St. Peter’s Square.
16-year-old Giuseppe Chiolo,
a patient of the oncological department of the Meyer Hospital in Florence,
travelled to the Vatican on Saturday morning aboard an ambulance.
The Pope embraced Giuseppe
before confirming him, and gifted him with a rosary as he asked the boy not to
forget to pray for him.
Giuseppe had recently written
a letter to Pope Francis in which he revealed his strong desire to meet with
the Pope; he was immediately invited to come to the Vatican.
The Pope also had words of
encouragement and comfort for Giuseppe’s parents and for his sister and aunt
who were present in the Square together with the Chaplain of the Meyer Hospital
and with the vice-director of the local Florentine Caritas office. He also
thanked the three volunteers of Mercy who accompanied Giuseppe on his journey
to Rome.
During the special Jubilee
Audience Pope Francis had special words of greeting for other sick and disabled
persons, including Laura Salafia who was shot by mistake six years ago and has
had to undergo a series of operations and rehabilitation, and Pompeo Barbieri,
a survivor of the 2002 earthquake in the southern Apulia region who has managed
to become a swimming champion notwithstanding a disability that constrains him
to a wheelchair.
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