MANILA, Jan. 20, 2015 – If you were one of the parents who struggled to get a papal blessing for their babies, children while the Holy Father was in the Philippines, then Pope Francis wants to give you a pat on the back.
Answering questions from members of the media aboard the papal flight back to Rome, the pontiff lauded gestures of parental love as shown by Filipino fathers and mothers who endured all sorts of hardships and sufferings just to get near the Pope so he may bless their child.
Pope Francis stoops to kiss a baby with what appears to be hydrocephalus at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila, Jan. 18, 2015. (Photo: Dominic Barrios)
“That gesture of fathers who think of their children so that the Pope will bless them [touched me]…A gesture which in other places one does not see,” Pope Francis revealed.
According to the Holy Father, it was as if the parents were saying: ’This is my treasure, this is my future, this is my love, for this one it’s worth working, for this one it’s worth suffering’.
“Then there were the gestures of the mothers who brought their sick children…Then many disabled children, with disabilities that make some impression; they did not hide the children, they brought them to the Pope so that he would bless them,” he added.
Pope Francis flew back to Rome early Monday on board Philippine Airlines flight Shepherd One PR 8010, concluding his week-long trip to Asia. (Jennifer M. Orillaza/CBCP News)
