Francis in the Casa Irmãs Alma that provides care and assistance to minors with serious illnesses. The Pontiff meets the nuns and about fifty children who welcome him with songs and gifts. The Pope encourages love for the frail: “It is the sacrament of the poor”. Then he points to the example of Silvano, 7 years old, suffering from a neurodegenerative disease: “He teaches us to let ourselves be treated”. And he signs the agenda of the young Arcangelo, in a wheelchair. Outside the house, tearful parents greet him
Salvatore Cernuzio – Sent to Dili
“When Jesus speaks of the Last Judgment, he says to some: ‘Come with me.’ But he does not say: ‘Come with me because you have been baptized, because you have been confirmed, because you have been married in Church, because they didn’t lie, because they didn’t steal…’. No! He says: ‘Come with me because you took care of me. You took care of me.’”
Pages torn from the Gospel were experienced this morning, September 10, in Dili, the second day of Pope Francis’ trip to Timor-Leste, in the Irmãs Alma house. A structure made of bricks, red carpets and painted white walls, where for years the nuns of the Association of Lay Missionary Institutions, founded in the 1960s in Indonesia, have provided care to disabled and seriously ill children. During the half-hour visit of the Pontiff, the smile, due to the spontaneity of the fifty or so children present (but also of the nuns) who threw themselves into the middle of the room or en masse at the Pope’s knees to ask for a blessing, alternated with emotion, with the caress of Silvano, 7 years old, suffering from a very serious neuro-motor disease, and with tears, when – leaving the structure – Francis greeted one by one desperate mothers and fathers with hydrocephalic or cognitively delayed children in their arms.
People on the streets of Dili to greet the Pope
The emotion of the people
Pages of the Gospel that become flesh with a Pope moved by a suffering in front of which – as he has said on many occasions – there are only tears and no explanation –, but at the same time smiling in seeing the uncontainable emotion of a population with a deep faith that does not look at security cordons or protocols but only wants to have a blessing from the Successor of Peter.
Today, like yesterday on arrival, the journey from the Nunciature to Casa Irmãs Alma was marked by unstoppable lines of people on the street who, with shouts, flags, applause, tears and leaps of joy, greeted the passage of the papal automobile. The impact was strong at the entrance to the House, adorned with flowers, red carpet, a sea of gifts, rosaries, statues of the Virgin of Fatima, with a little girl not even 5 years old, phocomelic, who together with two other peers in traditional clothes and a little crown welcomed him and honored him with a tais, the traditional Timorese scarf. Francis hugged her and put rosaries and sweets in her belt, while a nun, with a gesture of care like the many that punctuate daily life in Casa Irmãs Alma, adjusted her dropped shoulder strap. Then the Pope turned to his collaborators: “Can’t something be done for her? “Can we operate on her?” he asked.
Pope Francis in the Irmãs Alma House
The Sacrament of the Poor
In fact, most of these children suffer from incurable diseases, and it makes me angry to see that it was not possible to intervene on diseases that are otherwise very curable during pregnancy, due to poverty and lack of health care. All that remains now is love for these people who are completely blind, autistic, disabled, phocomelic, with Down syndrome.
“A love that encourages, that builds and that strengthens”
I call this “the sacrament of the poor,” the Pope adds in Italian.
Gestures of care
Love “is what is found here: love,” the Pope emphasizes in his brief speech, preceded by the greeting of the superior Sister Gertrudis Bidi, inside the San Vincenzo de Paoli hall. A love visible in small gestures such as that of the nuns calming down a child who had burst into a rage at the beginning of the meeting, or holding in their arms not-so-small children who had fallen asleep. Or again the hands on the head to fix the hair, the chasing of the liveliest children in the hall, having taught a song in Italian with the guitar to girls who are blind.
The three disabled girls who welcomed the Pope
Thanks to nuns and children
“Without love, this is not understood,” says the Pope. “We cannot understand the love of Jesus if we do not begin to practice love. Sharing life with the neediest people is a program, your program, it is the program of every Christian,” he insists. He then thanks the nuns and their collaborators for what they do and also thanks the girls, boys, and girls “who give us the testimony of letting ourselves be cared for by God.”
“They are the ones who teach us how we should let ourselves be cared for by God. Let ourselves be cared for by God and not by many ideas or projects or whims. Let ourselves be cared for by God. And they are our teachers. Thank you for this”
The Pope embraces a family in tears
Silvano’s silent testimony
Taking his eyes off the paper, the Pope calls Silvano, 7 years old, to the center of the room, who is sleeping in his stroller, which is his only guarantee of mobility. Francis caresses him, observes him: “I am looking at this child: what is his name? What does Silvano teach us? He teaches us to take care: by taking care of him, we learn to take care. And if we look at his face, he is calm, serene, sleeping peacefully. And just as he lets himself be cared for, we too must learn to let ourselves be cared for: let ourselves be cared for by God who loves us so much, let ourselves be cared for by the Virgin, who is our Mother”. The Pope asks the Madonna to recite a Hail Mary.
Francesco with little Silvano
Signature on Arcangelo’s notebook
Songs, greetings, gifts and tributes follow. Arcangelo, a young man of 24 years old with curly hair, with deep brown eyes, in a wheelchair, greets Pope Francis with his hands clasped and offers him two black leather notebooks. Every day he writes down his thoughts, his reflections. He asks the Pope to sign it and Pope Bergoglio leaves two dedications, in Portuguese: “To Arcangelo, with my blessing (To Archangel with my blessing)”.
Hugging tearful mothers and fathers
Before saying goodbye and being ‘mobbed’ by nuns and children who throw themselves at his feet to kiss his hands and say goodbye, Pope Francis leaves a gift to the House: a statue of the Nativity. “Look carefully: Saint Joseph takes care of the Virgin, and the Virgin takes care of Jesus. The most important person is the one who lets himself be cared for the most: Jesus. He lets himself be cared for by Mary and Joseph,” he introduces. “Do not forget: we must learn to let ourselves be cared for, all of us, as they let themselves be cared for. Thank you.” The Pope also signs the plaque for the 60th anniversary of the Alma congregation, then heads toward the exit. A line of parents awaits him near the car. The cries, the screams, the shouts of “Pope… Pope…” can be heard from the start. They are people afflicted by the suffering of their children. Many women kneel before the Pope; one, with clasped hands, buries her head in his robe; a father faints and is quickly helped by security; a mother, not as young as the others, bent over by the weight of the hydrocephalic baby she carries in a baby carrier, cries on Pope Francis’ hand. He watches in silence, half-closes his eyes, gives his blessing, rests his hand on the foreheads that appear before him. No words on this occasion: only tears. Those of the heart.