Continuing his efforts to promote a “culture of encounter” with the disabled, Pope Francis again embraced a severely disfigured man after his Nov. 20 weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The Pope spoke with a man who lacks facial features, embraced him and gave him a blessing. Pope Francis then smiled at the man, kissed him and gestured toward the sky in the midst of a crowded square.

The cause of the man’s disfigurement was not known. His identity is also not known, the British newspaper The Daily Mail reports.

It is the second time this month that the Pope’s hospitality towards the disfigured has drawn public attention.

At the end of his Nov. 6 audience, Pope Francis warmly embraced Vincio Riva, an Italian man suffering from severe tumors all over his body. His disorder is known as nerofibromatosis, a genetic condition.

The Pope received Riva for several minutes, took the man’s face in his hands, kissed him and gave him a blessing. Riva later said he “felt only love” by the action, noting that the Pope did not know whether his condition was contagious.

Though previous Popes have also made a habit of greeting the disabled, Pope Francis has drawn unique media attention for his actions.

At World Youth Day in July, Pope Francis welcomed a newborn girl born with anencephaly, who lacks a part of her skull and brain. The Pope blessed the child and her parents during the July 28 Mass on Copacabana beach.

In a June audio message to the Italian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Pope Francis called for a “culture of encounter, solidarity and hospitality” with the disabled that encourages their “active participation” in society.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-blesses-man-with-severely-disfigured-face/

The disabled are more involved in society than they have ever been.  All modern buildings have disabled access, disabled kids go to regular schools, they have their own Olympic Games for goodness sake and in London all the tickets were sold, they had full stadiums of people watching them.

The disabled can hardly claim to be an ignored minority any longer.  They get a ton of subsidy and taxpayer money to help them now.  My disabled son's education must cost the country five or six times what a normal child's would.

Anyway I thought the greatest problem facing the world was the loneliness of old people and youth unemployment.  They need a hug too.

Having said what I said in the other thread, if this becomes a daily/weekly act, then I will begin to question motives.

...begin to question his motives?

.

It seems to me that questioning his motives is a dead end.  


What the pope's intentions are or what he's trying to achieve
are his business between him and God.  What we have to be
concerned with is what the world is learning from what the
pope does and what he says.  And that's looking pretty bleak.


He may display great compassion in a worldly sense, and he
may do things that no natural man would do, especially if he
were to practice any of the many false religions that Newchurch
so much admires and honors such as with Assisi I, II and III.


But if Pope Francis were to practice the logical consequences
of those false religions, like they do in Bombay or Bangladesh,
he wouldn't be giving the disfigured and contagious the time
of day.  Therefore, his penchant to hold the Faith in continuous
abeyance at such times is actually consistent with his undue
regard for such false religions, regardless of how much
compassion he shows to those who suffer.  


Showing all this compassion is instructive as far as it goes but
it most definitely falls FLAT on the matter of what people need
to believe in order to be saved from eternity in hell fire.


On the surface it's fine to show honor and regard for those who
are suffering.  Any of the saints would do likewise, and some of
the saints are so because of their conspicuous charity toward the
infirm and malformed.  St. Damien of Molokai is a first example.


But each and every one of them brought the Faith that saves
along with their charity.  They never passed up an opportunity
for evangelization.


Against this very thing, the devil has been openly AT WAR.  


We live in the age when even the POPE (and this is
unprecedented) has fallen prey to the wiles of the devil in regard
to being embarrassed to mention the Truth of Jesus
at such times!!


WE ARE LIVING IN THE TIME THAT POPE LEO XIII SAW IN A
VISION THAT SHOOK HIM TO THE CORE.  And that's when he
composed his prayer to St. Michael Archangel:  Defend us
in the day of battle (that day is NOW, for we're living in it!!).
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of
the devil.  (The diabolical disorientation of satan reaches
even to the Chair of Peter!!) May God rebuke him, we
humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
thrust down into hell satan and all the other wicked spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.


It kind of worked for about 20 years...  One must wonder what
our world would be like today if this prayer had NOT been said.


If you were to pluck Pope Leo XIII out of the 19th century and
set him down here in our 21st century, what do you suppose
he would do in these situations?  I can't imagine him passing
up the chance to explain the Gospel to those who would be
saved, instead of ignoring the Gospel to them, such that they
may not be saved.  


.

Remember when Christ would heal the sick?  FIRST He would say, "Thy sins are forgiven thee."
Then He would heal them.

icterus,  Jorge the Humble should bless the the disfigured, the lame, the little boys, etc.,  & stop this kissing business.  It would be more Christ-like, no?

I meant to convey that Christ was always about the soul first and then the body.  Jorge seems to have forgotten that and constantly focuses on the body.