₦airaland Forum

Titilayodeji13:
Pope Francis was moved to embrace a
tearful abandoned girl at a university in
Manila after she asked why God allows
children to become prostitutes.
Glyzelle Palomar wept as she asked the
Pope: “Many children get involved in
drugs and prostitution. Why does God
allow these things to happen to us? The
children are not guilty of anything.”
The pontiff, cementing his reputation as a
champion of the poor and oppressed,
took the 12-year-old in his arms to
comfort her.
He was so touched by the girl’s appeal
that he abandoned his pre-prepared
speech in English and instead responded
to the child in Spanish, his native
language.
Visibly moved, the Pope said: “She is the
only one who has put forward a question
for which there is no answer and she was
not even able to express it in words but
rather in tears.”
Calling on people to show compassion for
the marginalised, he continued: “I invite
each one of you to ask yourselves, 'Have I
learned how to weep, how to cry when I
see a hungry child, a child on the street
who uses drugs, a homeless child, an
abandoned child, an abused child, a child
that society uses as a slave'?”
The girl had been abandoned before
being sheltered by a church-run
community and was once homeless. She
had been welcoming the Pope to the
university, but broke down as she asked
her emotional question.
The religious leader was speaking at an
event at a Catholic university in the
Philippines’ capital, where 30,000 people
had crowded to see Francis.
Later, he said mass in Rizal Park, at the
end of a seven day tour of Asia, where
officials estimated more than 3,000,000
were in attendance. People had been
waiting through the night for the park
gates to open at dawn; nine hours before
the mass was due to begin.
Pope Francis was driven through the
throng of people in a modified
“popemobile” wearing a transparent
yellow poncho over his white papal
cassock and regularly stopped to kiss
children and bless religious statues.
In the Philippines it is thought that 1.2
million children live on the streets and
35.1 per cent of children were living in
poverty in 2009, the last year such
figures were collated, according to the
Child Protection Network Foundation.
The theme of compassion for the poor
was central to the Pope’s visit and he
attacked the “scandalous social
inequalities” in the Philippines.
The Catholic Church has grappled with a
number of scandals in recent years,
including the abuse of children by priests.
Pope Francis is attempting to move on
from this by modernising the church and
acting in a more conciliatory manner
than his predecessors.

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/pope-francis-embraces-girl-after-she-asks-why-does-god-allow-children-to-become prostitutes-9985855.html?cmpid=facebook-post