Mom says son’s impromptu encounter with Pope Francis led to ‘miracle’

At 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, October 20, Roman time, the Holy Father had his Wednesday general audience with the faithful.

The Pope's livestreamed address, dedicated to the theme "Freedom is realized in love," was the 12th speech in his catechetical program on Saint Paul's Letter to the faithful. city ​​of Galatia.

At the beginning of the audience, the priests read Paul's letter to the Galatians chapter 5: verses 13 and 14 in various languages, a passage in which the Apostle urges Christians not to abuse their freedom but instead “become slaves to each other” through love.

As these words were read in German, a boy wearing a black tracksuit, glasses and a surgical mask approached Pope Francis. The boy smiled and squeezed his hand. Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, regent of the Papal Household, who often sits to the right of the pope during general audiences, stood up and gave up his seat to the boy.

The child sat for a moment, then stood up and pointed to the Pope's zucchetto hat. For a moment, the boy tried to snatch the hat, but the Pope held it tight. The boy then took the priest in charge of reading the Portuguese texts to the Pope and asked the priest to give him the Pope's skullcap. Finally, the boy stepped down from the stands triumphantly and proudly that someone had given him a zucchetto.

The Pope began his address by improvising reflecting on the boy's actions.

“In these days we are talking about freedom of faith, while listening to the Letter to the Galatians,” he said. But I remember what Jesus was saying about the spontaneity and freedom of children, when this child has the freedom to approach and move as if he were at home… And Jesus says to us: ' You too, if you are not like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven'."

“The courage to approach God, to be open to God, not to fear God: I thank this child for the lesson he has given us all. And ask God to help the boy in his limitations, in his maturity because he gave this testimony that came from his heart. Children do not have an automatic translator from heart to life: the heart always comes first.”

Now, please follow the Vietnamese-language translation of CBS News' newsletter through Kim Thuy's presentation.

It's not easy to climb the pope's stage – unless you're Paolo Bonavita, the 10-year-old Italian boy who adores Pope Francis and his white skullcap.

Bonavita, a boy with autism and epilepsy, took to the stage to meet the Pope at the Vatican last month, and was very fond of his zucchetto hat. The boy was invited to sit next to Francis, and his mother said he wanted to get the skullcap on the Pope's head.

The boy went to Rome for a medical check-up after doctors suspected a tumor or multiple sclerosis. According to Elsa Morra, the boy's mother, the fact that Bonavita was able to climb the stairs in the Paul VI Cathedral to meet the Pope was really a miracle.

"Climbing the stairs on my own, when it normally needs help, I thought, 'This can't be happening,'" she told CBS News.

What is especially surprising is that this development happened after the boy's health had already taken a turn for the worse.

"The doctor was almost certain it was a brain tumor," Morra said.

Pope Francis told her that he would pray for her son.

"He took my hand and said 'For you, nothing is impossible,'" she said.

About three weeks later, she understood what the Pope was telling her: She said the doctors had told her that her son's test results showed no signs of cancer and no symptoms. The boy's condition has improved."

“Thank you for this miracle,” Morra said of what she would tell the Pope.