INTERNATIONAL: Pope Francis is used to sharing the stage with world leaders, but it’s not every day he gets completely upstaged by a 10-year-old boy. He stole the show at the Pope’s weekly audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
The Pope was addressing a crowd of several thousand at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall when a young boy suddenly approached him and demanded his attention. Given his size and age, security officials didn’t deem him to be a threat and allowed him to approach Pope Francis. It was clear that all he wanted was the Pope’s white papal cap.
He shook the Pope's hand and when it became clear that he wanted to stay for a while, the Vatican’s head of protocol, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, got up and gave the boy his chair. The boy, who the Pope later said had what he called a medical “limitation” walked on and off the stage several times, much to the audience’s amusement.
His persistence finally paid off, with him being given a papal white cap. The Pope, as patient as ever, told the crowd that he’d like to thank the boy for the lesson he had given everyone. “May the Lord help him in his limitation, as he grows”, he said, “because what he did came from the heart.”
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