Pope baptises ‘migrant hero’

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Saturday led an Easter vigil service, baptising eight adults, including a formerly undocumented Nigerian migrant beggar who became a hero when he disarmed an Italian thief wielding a cleaver.

The baptism took place during a long Holy Saturday, or Easter eve, Mass for some 10,000 people in St Peter’s Basilica.

The pope traditionally welcomes new members of the Church during the Saturday night service.

This year, among those he baptised was John Ogah ( pix), 31, who Italian newspapers last year dubbed the “migrant hero” and held up as an example of bravery and good citizenship.

Ogah was begging for change outside a supermarket, in a Rome neighbourhood where many migrants live, last September when he stopped a 37-year-old Italian who had just held up the store with a cleaver and was getting away with about € 400, according to TV station TV2000.

Ogah, who did not have permission to stay in Italy, held the man down until police arrived and then left the scene, fearing it would be discovered that he did not have documents, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

Police, using footage from surveillance cameras, tracked him down and rewarded him by helping him get legal permission to stay in the country.

Nunzio Carbone, an Italian Carabinieri police captain who worked in the neighbourhood, was his godfather, or sponsor, at Saturday’s baptism service.

Ogah now works as a stockman at a warehouse for a charity group. – Reuters