POPE REACHES OUT TO SUFFERERS OF HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis embraced weeping mothers, fathers and children with Huntington’s disease on Thursday as he sought to remove the stigma of an incurable genetic disorder that causes such devastating physical and psychiatric effects that its sufferers are often shunned and abandoned.
One by one, Francis, pictured, blessed and greeted each of the 150 people with Huntington’s, as well as their family members and caregivers, who travelled from around the world for the hour- long audience in the Vatican audience hall. Organizers said the meeting marked the first time a world leader had recognized the plight of those who suffer from Huntington’s.
“May none of you ever feel you are alone,” Francis told the crowd of about 1,700. “May none of you feel you are a burden. May no one feel the need to run away.”
“You are precious in the eyes of God. You are precious in the eyes of the church.”
Many of the families came from South America, where Huntington’s is 1,000 times more prevalent than in the rest of the world. It is particularly prevalent in Venezuela, where the affected gene was first identified 25 years ago and where the stigma has led to such isolation that carriers have intermarried for generations, leading to greater numbers of sick.
One Colombian woman in the front row, Dilia, has had four of her 11 children die of Huntington’s, while four others are sick with it.