Rosaries, chocolate eggs and a book on the birth of Jesus were the gifts that Francis distributed to the young patients during a half-hour visit to the ward he had already visited during his hospitalization in 2021. The Pontiff also administered Baptism to the little Miguel Angel, a few weeks old. To his mother he said: “When you go to the parish, tell him that the Pope baptized him”
Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican City
“What is his name?”. “Miguel Angel”. “Miguel Angel I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Before leaving Gemelli tomorrow, where he has been hospitalized for bronchitis since Wednesday, the Pope – as in 2021, when he was hospitalized after colon surgery – did not want to miss a visit to the children hospitalized in the pediatric oncology ward in the hospital, located opposite the area of his hospitalization. A half-hour visit to a place of deep pain, tempered by the joy of colours, painted walls and toys.
The Baptism of Miguel Angel
Pope Bergoglio distributed gifts and caresses, exchanged words and jokes with the children’s mothers and greeted doctors and nurses. Finally he baptized a few weeks old Miguel Angel, wrapped in blankets in the mobile cradle, who, awakened by the splashes of blessed water that the Pope took from the kidney-shaped basin, burst into tears. “That’s his answer!” joked one nurse. Francesco tried to calm him down by stroking his nose and lips with his finger, then blessed him on the forehead, under his mother’s gaze. To the very young woman, the Pontiff said: “He is already a Christian. When you go to the parish, say that the Pope baptized it”.
The Pope caresses little Miguel Angel
Gifts and blessings
Pope Francis has also bestowed blessings on other patients who fight against an evil that should never touch a child’s body and also on their parents who assist their children daily in treatment and therapy. To them – informs the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni – he donated Rosaries, chocolate eggs and copies of the book “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea…”, a small volume published by Apostolato di Preghiera which tells children about the birth of Jesus as reported in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke.
Francesco leaves a dedication to the department
The visit to the same department in 2021
At the end of the visit, after leaving a dedication on a blank sheet, Pope Francis returned to his small apartment on the tenth floor – the famous “Vatican III” coined by John Paul II – which has hosted him since Wednesday 29 March, after the first investigations that established the hospitalization, and which hosted him in 2021 after surgery for diverticular stenosis. And just two years ago, a convalescent Pope in a wheelchair had wanted to go to the same oncological ward in Wing D, attracted by the music that came from those rooms.
Playing for the children in the oncology section that day was Ambrogio Sparagna and the Orchestra Popolare Italiana, who at that time were touring Italy with a project of 15 concerts created by the Fondazione Musica per Roma in collaboration with Caritas capitolina . The Pope had wanted to participate in that moment of celebration which alleviates the too great sufferings which affect bodies which are too small and which do not have an answer. Or rather, the only answer, as Francis himself said on many occasions, is only silence and tears.