Pope Francis
marks his Easter vigil with 8 baptisms, including a beggar who disarmed a thief.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday urged Catholics to not remain paralyzed in the face of the injustices around them as he baptized eight adults, including a Nigerian beggar who became a hero in Italy for having disarmed a thief with his hands.
In an Easter vigil homily, Francis challenged Catholics to not remain silent, as Jesus’ disciples were after his crucifixion.
Rather, the pope urged Catholics to “break out” of their routines and let God in.
It wasn’t clear if he had a particular reference in mind, but John Ogah certainly didn’t stand by speechless as he witnessed a supermarket robbery Sept. 26.
According to Italian news reports, Ogah had been begging for spare change outside the Carrefour market in Rome’s Centocelle neighborhood when a masked thief, armed with a meat cleaver, tried to make off with $493 he had stolen from the cashiers.
Security cameras captured Ogah’s courageous next steps: He confronted the thief, wrested the cleaver away and held him by the collar until police arrived, after the man fell from his attempted getaway motorcycle.
Ogah then disappeared, fearing he would be deported because he didn’t have his papers in order.
But Rome authorities sought to reward his courage and within a month had given him a coveted Italian residency permit that had been denied him when his asylum bid failed.
According to the ANSA news agency, he now has a job with the Italian Red Cross and a place to call home.
In an interview soon after the theft, Ogah told La Repubblica newspaper that his dream was to be a legal resident in Italy and have a job so he wouldn’t have to beg to support his child back home in Nigeria.
Ogah had left Nigeria and, after a stay in Libya, set off for Italy on a migrant smuggler’s boat in May 2014.
“If Pope Francis or the president of the republic could do something for me I would be the happiest man in the world,” he was quoted as saying.
On Saturday, Francis baptized him during the solemn pomp of one of the holiest nights in the Catholic liturgical calendar.
Ogah chose as his baptismal name “Francesco.”