PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis kissed the forehead of a boy with cerebral palsy after landing in Philadelphia, coaxing a small smile from the profoundly disabled 10-year-old.
Francis apparently spied Michael Keating as he was being driven away from the plane on Saturday morning. Ordering the car to stop, Francis got out and walked over to the boy, put his hand on his head and kissed him as his sobbing mother looked on.
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Kristin Keating thanked the pope, who grasped her hand. He also shook the hand of Keating’s husband, Chuck Keating, the band director at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown. The band played for the pope’s arrival.
Kristin Keating calls it a beautiful gesture by Francis and says she believes Michael felt the pope’s blessing.
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