Pope Francis charmed by child who climbed on stage during General Audience

29 November 2018
A young child runs around the state during Pope Francis' general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday. Image: Vatican Television Center/Catholic News Service.

 

Pope Francis praised the freedom – albeit “undisciplined” – of a disabled child who climbed onto the stage on Wednesday to play during the pontiff’s general audience.

The Swiss Guards and Vatican gendarmes stood by on Wednesday and gamely let 6-year-old Wenzel Wirth run around Pope Francis as monsignors read out his catechism lesson in various languages in the Vatican audience hall.

At one point, the boy’s Argentine-Italian mother came on stage to fetch him and explained to Pope Francis that he couldn’t speak. Pope Francis told her “Let him be, let him be” and the mother retreated and let Wenzel continue to play.

RELATED: Video footage from the general audience can be viewed below or click here.

When Pope Francis took the microphone, he explained in Spanish to the crowd that the child was speech-impaired. “But he knows how to communicate, to express himself,” he said.

“And he has something that made me think: He’s free. Undiciplined-ly free, but he’s free,” a chuckling Francis said to applause from the crowd. “It made me think, ‘Am I so free before God?’”

“When Jesus says we have to be like children, it means we need to have the freedom that a child has before his father,” Francis continued. “I think this child preaches to all of us. And let us ask for the grace of speech (for him).”

The boy’s father, Ariel Wirth, told The Associated Press that Wenzel suffers from behavioural problems as well as his speech limitations, and that the family at home tries simply to let him express himself as he can.

“We try to let him be free. He has to express himself, and we live without hiding his problems,” he said.

The family lives in Verona and came to Rome just for Wednesday’s general audience. Wirth said Wenzel was tired after the long journey and long wait for the pope Wednesday morning, and clearly needed to run around.

“It was not planned,” he said, though he added that the family had told Wenzel that they were going to see the pope and that he was clearly excited at the prospect.

With thanks to Crux and Nicole Winfield, where this article originally appeared.

 

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