Of Hugs

Sometimes the news can just be simple.

From CNA:

Vatican City, Apr 26, 2012 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A 7-year-old Italian girl got her wish granted after this week’s Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, when she was able to give a hug to “her friend” Pope Benedict XVI.

Miriam Gentile, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was born in the city of Catanzaro on April 22, 2005, three days after Benedict XVI’s election to the papacy. She has been receiving treatment for her condition at the Gemelli and Bambino Gesu Hospitals in Rome.

At the conclusion of the General Audience on April 25, she personally greeted the Pope and gave him what the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano described as “an unforgettable hug that was simple, spontaneous, and an expression of joy and affection.”

Her father, Marino Gentile, said Miriam “watches the Pope on television all the time, because seeing him makes her happy.”

Among those attending the General Audience this week a group of children aged 5-12 from the Italian city of Parma participating in a program to promote sports as “a healthy way to have fun,” said the group’s spokesman, Giuseppe Formisano.

You may remember that about a year ago, a little boy made a dash past security during a General Audience:

Sinite parvulos!

And then there is the case of the audacious young Thérèse Martin and Leo XIII.