Young boy speechless after giving flowers to Pope

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jul 23, 2013 / 12:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The boy who greeted the Holy Father upon his arrival in Brazil said he could not find the words to describe what it was like to be so near the Successor of Peter.

“It’s very emotional – I have no words,” nine year-old Gustavo Silva Clemente told CNA July 22 shortly after greeting Pope Francis at Galeao Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro.

Wearing a rosary around his neck, the young boy presented the Pope with flowers as part of the welcoming ceremony for the Holy Father on his first trip back to Latin America since his election.

Gustavo seemed very excited but, overcome with emotion, was unable to say anything else.

The child’s mother, Ana Lucia Silva Clemente, who looked on as her son greeted the Pontiff, said she hopes his trip will bless Brazil and its young people.

“I also hope that Pope Francis’ trip brings peace, hope and joy to all of us who need it very much,” she said.

After his departure from the air base, swarms of faithful crowded Pope Francis small car to the point where he was unable to pass. From an aerial view, thousands of people could be seen running and crowding along the boulevard in hopes of catching a glimpse, or even touching, the Pope.

Security guards, some even hanging out the car’s window, struggled to keep the crowds back, though Pope Francis was all smiles and seemed peaceful among the frenzy around him.

The Holy Father has traveled to Brazil to participate in World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. The event, which officially begins July 23, will conclude with an open-air Mass on July 28 as well as the announcement for the next location for the international youth pilgrimage.

Thousands of journalists swarm Copacabana beach for World Youth Day

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jul 22, 2013 / 03:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Around 6,000 journalists from around the globe are flocking to Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach this week to cover the Pope Francis’ first World Youth Day.

“It’s a very big challenge to give the right message about the Pope,” said Chloe Martial, a volunteer for World Youth Day’s media center.

“We’ve been giving a lot of accreditations and some people were missing because of the amount we had,” she told CNA July 22.

The 24-year-old is just one of around 50 volunteers working at the accreditation center to hand out journalists their press passes for this week's event.

The journalists represent 1,500 press and broadcast media from over 60 countries. Rio de Janeiro's archbishop, Orani João Tempesta, and the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, officially opened the international Media Centre July 22 in Copacabana, alongside five young people from different countries.

Archbishop Tempesta then went to the airport to receive Pope Francis. “He left Latin America and now returns as the first pilgrim of World Youth Day,” the archbishop said. “Christ the Redeemer welcomes him with open arms.”

“Pope Francis comes with the hope of all those who want to build a better world,” he added.

He admitted to social discontent in Brazil, but added that civilians believe young people’s “beauty, energy and hope from across the world will help to build a world of greater peace and justice.”

Mayor Paes affirmed that city authorities see this visit “as a great opportunity to better confront the challenges facing Rio.”

“This is a young, growing, diverse city which is looking to be better integrated,” Paes said.

“This visit and the dialogue that Pope Francis will have with the people of Rio will help us greatly in this aim,” he added.

The media volunteer, who came from Paris eight days ago, noted she thinks World Youth Day will change the city of Rio.

“There are also a lot of local, good, Catholic people who are willing to make this good,”

“They are really involved and there are so many police and security everywhere, too,” she added.

The volunteer said she came to Rio after hearing experiences from family and friends who had attended previous ones.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do before turning 25 and I’m almost there,” she said. “I think it’s something amazing, too, because people change when they go there so I really wanted to experience it myself, too.”

Pope Francis' shadow: Monsignor Pedacchio Leaniz

Vatican City, Jul 19, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- Pope Francis now counts on the discreet presence of his new, 49-year-old Argentinean secretary, Msgr. Fabiàn Pedacchio Leaniz.

“I want to keep a low profile,” Pope Francis' second secretary told CNA in a June 27 conversation. “I’m doing my best to attend to the Holy Father, without revealing anything of Pope Francis private life.”

Msgr. Fabiàn Edgardo Marcelo Pedacchio Leaniz leaned out the Apostolic Palace window at the Pope’s side for the first time on May 12, almost exactly two months after Pope Francis’ election.

Shortly after the March 13 event, he moved to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican hotel where the Pope is living. He began collaborating part time with Pope Francis, while keeping his post of “second class secretary clerk” at the Congregation for the Bishops.

Now, Msgr. Pedacchio Leaniz is Pope Francis’ full-time second secretary, a position through which he aids the Holy Father in his daily life whether it be as a translator or in answering personal correspondence in the name of the Pope. The first secretary is Msgr. Alfred Xuereb, of Maltese origins, who also served as second secretary to Benedict XVI.

As second secretary, Msgr. Pedacchio will eventually be inserted into the ranks of the Secretariat of State.

The priest has long known the pontiff. When he took his post in the Vatican Curia in 2007, it was under recommendation of the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

An expert in Canon Law, Msgr. Pedacchio Leaniz was secretary of SADEC, the Argentinian society for  Canon Law. He also worked at the Ecclesiastical Court of Argentina.

The monsignor was raised in the barrio of Villa Luro, in Buenos Aires. He recounted in an interview with the newspaper “El Periodico del Barrio” in Jan. 2007 that, when he was younger, he never thought about becoming a priest.

In 1983, he decided to study economics and raise a family. But then he met a priest who, Pedacchio Leaniz told El Periodico del Barrio, “grabbed my attention for his joy and openness. Once he asked me if I had ever thought of being a priest.”

Msgr. Pedacchio’s first reply was, “My future is studying, graduating and raising a family.” But he kept thinking about this priest’s proposal, and the following March he entered the seminary.

He was ordained a priest on Dec. 7, 1992.

It was later that then-parish priest Fr. Pedacchio Leaniz began to have a weekly phone conversations with his archbishop, Cardinal Bergoglio, and meet with him more frequently.

In 2007, the Congregation of Bishops asked Cardinal Bergoglio if he could suggest an Argentinian priest for a post within its ranks. The cardinal chose Msgr. Pedacchio Leaniz, whom the archbishop of Buenos Aires held in great esteem.

Their friendship even led to some speculation about the true role the priest had in the Congregation for the Bishops.

In a Dec. 26, 2011 report, an anonymous informant wrote in the Argentinian portal Intereconomia accusing him of being “a spy of Cardinal Bergoglio in Rome” within the ranks of the Congregation of Bishops.  

The report insinuated that Msgr. Pedacchio used to inform Cardinal Bergoglio “of any document or letter that reached the Congregation, sealed documents included.” The report also asserted that “when the issue at stake is very important, Msgr. Pedacchio also sends faxes to Bergoglio with all the documentation required” by “his boss.”

Msgr. Pedacchio Leaniz is considered by many to be skilled and attentive. “He used to keep eyes and ears open,” said a Vatican clerk who worked in the Congregation for Bishops and spoke to CNA on the condition of anonymity.

His hobbies are varied. He likes opera and music in general, and he has a broad collection of CDs of various genres. He likes soccer and he is a big fan of the Argentinian football team of River Plate. He loves Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ books, and he is a fan of Pedro Almodovar, the famous Spanish film director and Academy Award winner.

In Rome, he used to buy prayer books at a small bookshop in the vicinity of Saint Peter Square. The booksellers described Msgr. Pedacchio in a June 27 conversation with CNA as “a nice and easygoing person, sometimes even humorous.”