Posted on 01/17/2015 3:41:41 PM PST by NYer
.- Deviating from his schedule of events in the Philippines, Pope Francis had a brief but emotionally intense encounter with former street kids in Manila yesterday.
“I saw a sense of paternity from the Pope, also physically in his embrace, his caress, his affection that the kids immediately noticed. So all of them wanted to be in contact with him,” Father Antonio Spadaro S.J. told CNA on Jan. 16.
“It was a very simple encounter…But there was a great intensity and emotion.”
The encounter took place directly after Pope Francis' Jan. 16 Mass with bishops, priests and religious in Manila's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Fr. Spadaro, who had concelebrated Mass with the Pope, said that after changing, the pontiff walked “very simply” outside the main doors by himself, and turned toward the left side of the cathedral, and into the courtyard of a house, where the group of street children was waiting.
The kids, who numbered around 250, “were street children, scavenger children, children in slums and mentally challenged youth. Some of them have been abused, even sexually,” the priest explained, recalling how the Pope “was welcomed by the kids on the street, even before he entered.”
Founded by a Jesuit, the house was in fact a home center for youth run by the Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation, which has been assisting street children in Manila since 1998. The foundation has several houses for boys and girls throughout Manila, and the one the Pope visited was for girls.
When the Pope entered the home, Fr. Spadaro recounted how the children immediately “started to sing and to embrace him…so there was a lot of excitement.”
The brief encounter was “very simple” and lasted no more than 20 minutes he noted, recalling how the Pope had no prepared speech, but rather said a few “small words” in Spanish, which were then translated into Filipino by Cardinal Antonio Luis Tagle, archbishop of Manila.
Although the Pope’s words were brief and simple, they were “words of affection, of sympathy,” the priest explained. The encounter concluded when the children sang a song for the Pope on his way out.
Despite not being written into the original schedule of events, the encounter had obviously been planned ahead of time, Fr. Spadaro said, because the kids themselves had to be organized and go outside.
The event “was kept silent and not written into the regular schedule,” he said, recalling how the priest in charge of the foundation also gave a short introductory speech in English, and partly in French at the end, presenting the kids to the Pope and explaining their reality.
Pope Francis “evidently needed to encounter some reality of the marginalized, of the poor. He had just said it in his homily at Mass: if you take away the poor from the Gospel you take the heart of the Gospel, the Gospel itself,” the priest observed.
“So he really felt the need to see these people, to touch them. It was wonderful. So it was not a symbolic encounter, but a real one, absolutely real, even if it was a private encounter.
Surprised himself by the encounter, Fr. Spadaro said that he didn’t know what was going on at first, and just followed the Pope and other people out of the cathedral, and realized once they arrived at the center across the street.
He said that he was particularly moved when “a boy with a blue shirt arrived and hugged the Pope on the leg.”
Cardinal Luis Tagle told journalists in a Jan. 16 news conference that “it was a beautiful, beautiful encounter. You could see the Holy Father in his element.”
“You could see his eyes getting cloudy and beginning to fill with tears. You could see that he was trying to show his affection to the children but at the same time trying to fathom these deep wounds and pain,” the cardinal added.
Ping!
Bet he couldn’t change a diaper if his life depended on it.
Thanks. Hadn’t seen this written up anywhere else.
How sweet. Pope Francis reminds me of Father Ho Lung, founder of the Missionaries of the Poor. They never want to eliminate people.
...”Homeless Filipino Children Caged, Hidden From Pope”....
Hundreds of children in the Philippines are being rounded up and kept in prisons in order to sanitize the capital city prior to a visit by Pope Francis. Francis arrived in the Philippines
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/homeless-filipino-children-caged-hidden-photo-145208081.html
The practice of rounding up children in the Philippines before major events apparently has a long history, and was also seen last year when President Obama went to the country.
“When we tried to have them released we were told they couldn’t come out until after Obama had gone and the children were very much given the impression that they were rescued because of this visit,”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/15/homeless-filipino-children-caged-hidden-from-pope/
Then his NEXT speech should be to the people to ADOPT THESE CHILDREN....NOW!!!
A photo op if I ever saw one. I read a story about how street kids were rounded up and put in jails. They had to hide them. Guess it is like the homeless here before VIP visits.
Hundreds of boys and girls are forced to live in brutal detention centers with adult criminals, because of the current visit of Pope to the country.
Children are repeatedly 'rescued' from the streets - with one child revealing they had been rounded up 59 times
The problem is every time some dignitary arrives there they put these kids in jails....which while they gather them up the kids think they’re being “rescued”...when in fact once the Pope leaves this time, they’ll again let them back on the streets.
FYI
And I doubt if you have ever endured the poverty and hopelessness that these children who are surviving have to live with.........
You truly make me sick.......
The kids, who numbered around 250, “were street children, scavenger children, children in slums and mentally challenged youth.
Children of this world deserve better than this.........
Someone on here said the Catholics/Vatican have plenty of money. So, instead of buying junk the money could be used to build and staff orphanages. Which is more important-—lives or stuff? They can not take it with them. Imagine the lives that could be changed forever.
They will always have their soup kitchens etc...but they're land and property investment, as well as elitis living high on the hog in their leadership, will not allow for what could otherwise be for the poor etc.
Here's one
Two years after closing a school citing a 'lack of funds', an archdiocese in New Jersey built a lavish addition to a retirement home for its archbishop... The image does not show the three-story addition.
This Priest got into trouble for his high living...enjoying a great ride
Former Priest of St. John's Roman Catholic Church, pleaded guilty in September 07' to a single charge of interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud. (Though he it was known he had stolen over a million)... Under his plea bargain with federal prosecutors, Fay admitted using $34,000 in church money for the down payment on a Philadelphia condominium.
Find me a church, ANYWHERE, were there have NOT been any leaders who have suctioned off money for their own use and pleasure. You attack the Catholic Church just because it’s big and well known.
There are a ton of kids like that. And yes, they do round them up for events like this. They always gravitate to the foreigners. My wife told me never to give them anything, not that we don’t like to help, but she says if you give something to one, in minutes, there will be a hundred of them, all trying to literally put their hands in your pockes, trying to get at your wallet.
“Someone on here said the Catholics/Vatican have plenty of money.”
I sure hope so, because it spends a terrific amount of money building orphanages.
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