Deaf boy storms an audience with
THE Pope got a surprise yesterday after a young boy dodged security guards to climb on to a stage at the Vatican.
He ran over to the chair of Pope Francis and started playing, at one point rolling around on the floor in front of him.
The cheeky boy took a particular liking to one of the Swiss guards standing just a few yards away from the Pope and started tugging on his sleeve.
The he started tinkering with the spear and glove of the guard.
His horrified mother, visiting the Vatican from her home in Argentina, ran on to the stage to retrieve him.
Despite his mum’s efforts to pull him away the boy continued, and he was also joined by a little girl who seemed to be trying to move him away.
The woman had a quick chat with the Pope, explaining that he is mute and cannot speak.
The pontiff, who was born in Argentina, told aides: “He is Argentinian and unruly. Leave
him, leave him to play here.” Pope Francis then told the crowd that the boy was hearing and speech impaired, before adding: “But he knows how to communicate, to express himself. And he has something that made me think: He’s free. Undisciplined, but he’s free. It made me think, am I so free before God?”
Francis, who has been pope since Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013, then prayed for the boy.
He is the first pope born outside Europe since Gregory III, from Syria, in the eighth century.