Pope Francis today distributed smiles and blessings and even made jokes to journalists who followed the flight to Lisbon for World Youth Day (WYD), to whom he also thanked for their company and work.
“Thank you very much for your company and your work and I will greet you one by one. Thank you,” Francis said, a moment before he began greeting the 78 journalists, including 11 Portuguese, who were on board the ITA Airways plane, which departed from Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport at 08:00 local time (minus one hour in Lisbon).
Then, walking along the corridor, supported by a cane and surrounded by Vatican security and communications officers, he stopped at every line, where all the journalists were introduced to him, greeting one by one, as he had announced.
In between requests to bless photos, both on paper and on his cell phone, and medals and rosaries that journalists brought at the request of colleagues, Francis also autographed books.
Asked by a journalist to bless his family photo after reporting that he had recently turned 25, Francisco replied: “There are still 25 to go.”
To another, who asked for an autograph of the Portuguese edition of the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”, the Pope, after signing the book, laughingly replied: “One hundred lire [ancient Italian currency]”.
Always with a smile, Francis also said he hoped to return to Rome rejuvenated after WYD.
At the back of the plane, which in national airspace was accompanied by Air Force F-16 aircraft, and where most of the Portuguese journalists were concentrated, a journalist told Francisco: “We are the Portuguese journalists, we want to welcome you”.
Vatican journalist Aura Miguel, from Rádio Renascença, handed Pope Francis a letter from the Conceptionist Nuns of Campo Maior (Alentejo), with a “spiritual gift”.
For a year, the 17 religious commit to praying for the Pope in Masses, prayers, work hours and sacrificial offerings, among other things, she explained.
Brazilian journalist Anna Ferreira, who in 2017, on the Pope’s first trip to Fatima, was five months pregnant with her daughter Thais, who received a blessing on the papal flight, told Lusa that she has resumed traveling today, after having a second child.
“My daughter, who will turn 6 on September 25, received the Pope’s blessing on her belly,” Anna Ferreira recalled.
Meanwhile, the Vaticanist, a journalist for SBT and Rede Vida television stations, had another son, Leonardo, 5 months old, who was on his way to Portugal with his father.
“He is still breastfeeding and he will meet me there, in Lisbon”, she explained, adding that there will be spaces in the press centers, in the Portuguese capital and in Fatima, to be able to breastfeed the baby.
Anna stressed that Leonardo, who also received a blessing from Francis when he was still in his mother’s womb, on the occasion of the ‘ad limina’ visit of the bishops of Brazil to the Pope in October 2022, “will be the youngest pilgrim of WYD”.
On the occasion of the bishops’ visit, Francis turned to the Brazilian journalist and said: “Are you a bishop? There’s another one there,” Anna Ferreira recounted.
The ‘ad limina’ visit is an obligation for bishops to meet the Pope every five years in Rome, visiting the tombs of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul.
Thais stayed in Rome with her grandparents, where the 38-year-old journalist has lived for 10 years.
“I arrived at the end of Benedict XVI’s pontificate [1927-2022] and I have followed the entire pontificate of Francis,” he said.
Asserting that it is a privilege to be able to follow the pontificate and be close to the Pope, the Vaticanist said that “it is to be evangelized every day”.
“He is a Pope who looks you in the eye, he wants to know about us, he cares about each one of us. He cares about people, he cares like a good shepherd cares about his sheep,” he said.
The journalist added that her life motto was taken from the words of Francis: “Go ahead, don’t give up, don’t be afraid”.
Before leaving for Lisbon, at his residence, Casa de Santa Marta, Francis greeted 15 people today, including some young men and women who are in an institution for recovery and unable to participate in WYD.
They were joined by three grandparents with their grandchildren in a meeting that took place just days after the World Day of Grandparents and Older People, with the Pope stressing the connection between generations and that they can support each other and learn from each other.
