During the Wednesday General Audience a little boy just decided to go up and see the Pope.
Sinite parvulos!
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UPDATE:
After the “how cute” factor wears off, there are concerns to be addressed.
Think of a scenario in which a nefarious nerdowell and rapscallion puts the teddy bear with the C4 and the remote detonator in it into junior’s hands and says “Run up to the Pope and give him this! It’s okay! I’ll take you for ice cream later!”
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Now can we have another debate about the behaviour of children at Mass? J/K!
That was really cute. :)
Hey, if you’re gonna go see the Pope, you might as well get a good view!
Bravo, caro bambino!
Msgr. Gaenswein seemed to be managing the situation nicely.
Having more courage than men five times his age, unlike those quivering lilies when face to face with Peter, he no doubt said, “Holy Father, when are you going to celebrate the Extraordinary Form? It’s about time!”
Reason number 56835 that security for the Pope needs to be revamped.
Had to be Brazilian, didn’t he X-D
After the man trying to jump in the Popemobile in 2007, the woman knocking down His Holiness at the Christmas Midnight Mass in 2009, and the same woman coming at him during Mass one year prior, seeing this was somewhat refreshing.
A little boy just wanted to meet his Papa!
Surely, like little Therese Martin, he was asking if he could join the Carmelites right away and not be made to wait till he was 16!!
“Go… go… you will enter if God wills it!” (Leo XIII to St Therese of Lisieux, right before the guards came and picked the bold Little Flower up by the arms and carried her away)
Beautiful! “Let the little children come to me.” Thank you for this clip that brought tears to my eyes.
Mixed feelings. Cute, yes of course. But as a law enforcement guy it gives me cause for concern about the Pontiff’s security. No one, even a child, should have that sort of unfettered access out of the crowd and onto the stage. Remember that Islamic terrorists have used children that young as suicide bombers.
As much as we are concerned for security, the Holy Father is not a celebrity or political leader, he is a spiritual father. Things like this can be of divine providence.
Reason #4627 why it’s awesome to be a kid. You can get away with that kind of thing. That’s so adorable.
Very cool! I expect great things for him as well.
I think something great would be lost if the Pope had strong security. A Shephard cannot take care of his Sheep if he cannot get close to them. People would develop a large detachment from the Pope if he were to have a strong security detail, just like people have since security was revamped after President Kennedy (and his brother’s) assasinations.
First and foremost, the Holy Father is a bishop and a priest. We have lost if we put security above approachability, especially by the little ones. Someone else has already quoted Our Lord who said, “suffer the little children and forbid them not to come to me”. (Mt. 19:14)
This little guy wanted to see his shepherd, and his shepherd was, like all rottweilers, gentle and tender. I love it.
And CTV cameras missed the initial contact. I’m shocked. Shocked, I say.
I’m surprised they didn’t cut away for a wide angle crowd shot once they had picked up on it.
I second beez on approachability. And I think BXVI himself would say that some risk of this sort is part of the job. Better what was seen here than to have 5 burly 200#’s wrastle the kid to the ground and taser him into a coma.
Having been to St. Peter’s Basilica more than a few times (and once to a papal audience at Paul VI Hall), a suicide bombing would be improbable as one has to go through metal detectors with bags being x-rayed before entering the premises.
That’s true, Raymond. I’ve been to St. Peter’s twice, and the second time I visited the metal detectors picked up a pack of gum I had in my pocket…gum!! I figured the shiny gum wrapper must have had some metal in it…or something…cause when I pulled the pack of gum out of my skirt pocket, the guard nodded and pointed to it and waved me on (as though to say, “Yes gum oh that’s it go ahead no problem”).
Oh heck – what a great sight. I agree with John Ma – reason number 33393939393939 for new security for pope. Come off it and Fr Z whilst I agree with a lot of your posts to imagine a kind with bomb in a teddy bear is just going off the planet. What next, an iron bubble for the pope 24 hors a day? Let’s get real, the pope must be able to meet people – YES ORDINARY PEOPLE without a security official coming in, rudely brushing them aside every time. I have watched speechless so many times as those suited men arounf JPII and Benedict come in are rude to priests and nuns and shove them away. I saw some Missionaries of Charity in NY rudely pushed aside by vatican security as the pope came by. All they wanted to do was touch his hand – BUT NO, they weren’t allowed to. This has all gone crazy.
If Jesus came back today he’d be unable to walk around Gallilee without a hoard of security men in suits stopping every fisherman, carpenter and wife coming close to him.
No, its gone too far and its ruining the papacy and its need to be close to the people.
I dread what it will all lead to. Just watching the Vicar of Christ on a 21inch TV screen, sheltered away at Gastelgandolpho 365 days a year. Is that what we really want.
let the boy come to the pope – HE DID NOT CARRY ANYTHING WITH HIM, JUST HIS YOUTH AND HEART TO MEET THE SUCCESSOR OF PETER.
For whatever reason God allowed it. What is it in the bible where the person reaches for Jesus to be healed and her faith is what healed her? Is that: Matthew 9: 20-22? I thought of that. If we had faith like children we would act so differently. We are so prideful and worry about what people think. (That and the fact that an adult would be tackled to the ground and taken in for questioning!) What I loved was the Holy Father’s reaction. He seems delighted.
p.s. I guess my second thought was about the Holy Father’s safety. It should be a concern. Didn’t some mentally unstable woman go after him a couple of times? Maybe this is a wake up call.
“nefarious neerdowell and rapscallion”? Oh please, just go ahead and call it Islamic fundamentalist terrorist and have done with it. But I think that sector of Islam would lose far more than it could hope to gain, by using a small child as a tool to assassinate a pope. Even the silent sympathizers with their cause would turn against them in response.
And as to the Church, we’d hold a funeral, a conclave, and in short order would have another pope sitting in the chair of St. Peter. So the terrorists would gain nothing good for themselves.
Reasonable security, sure. But trust in Divine Providence for the rest, just as the Holy Father did in welcoming that cute little boy (with or without an exploding teddy bear).
Jaybirdnbham: How do you know I wasn’t thinking of a frustrated aging-hippie liturgist?
If it was our Lord, would he have had security ?
That said, I am uncertain as to the direction of my opinion had the child been loaded up with C4 as described.