This summer, Vatican security got a special challenge when a 10-year-old autistic girl rushed up to Pope Francis 20 minutes into his weekly general audience in Paul VI Hall.

She first made her way towards a plain-clothes security officer, who took a few steps towards her but backed off as if waiting for an order. That’s when someone off to the side moved to intercept her before she reached the pontiff.

But Pope Francis waved them away as Clelia Manfellotti from Naples, Italy walked right up to the pope and stood in front of him.

“Leave her be,” he said. “God speaks through children.”

He repeated “Leave her be” three times as an order to those who might seek to intervene in what he appeared to consider a message or an opportunity to set an example.

The audience erupted in applause as he allowed Clelia in her black leggings and hot pink shirt to walk, clap, and dance around the stage for 5 minutes.

She was also briefly entertained by her appearance on the closed-circuit television.

Eventually, her mother risked a warning from the pope himself and came to gently take her by the hand and back to her seat.

Pope Francis put aside his written remarks to speak about the little girl.

“I’d like to begin by offering you a reflection. We’ve all seen this very lovely girl. She’s beautiful – she just really is – and, poor girl, poor girl, she is victim of a disease, and knows not what she does.”

His compassion for her captured the hearts of people who saw the video of the moment as well, and he took the opportunity to deliver an impromptu message:

“I ask one thing, but everyone should respond in their heart: ‘Did I pray for her; looking at her, did I pray so that the Lord would heal her, would protect her? Did I pray for her parents and for family?’ When we see any person suffering, we must always pray. This situation helps us to ask this question: ‘Did I pray for this person that I have seen, (this person) that is suffering?'” the pope asked in reference to Clelia.

His catechesis that day focused on the Acts of the Apostles and the sharing of goods among the first Christians. But some of his words did double duty as a warning to those who espouse Christian love but don’t practice it (perhaps, those who would have the child removed from the stage and disciplined).

“Hypocrisy is the worst enemy of this Christian community, of this Christian love: that way of pretending to love one another but only seeking one’s own interest,” he said. “In fact, to fail in the sincerity of sharing or to fail in the sincerity of love means to cultivate hypocrisy, to distance oneself from the truth, to become selfish, to extinguish the fire of communion and to destine oneself to the chill of inner death.”

The pontiff was certainly happy to share his stage, showing precisely the charity he asked of others.

Be sure to scroll down below to see Clelia’s moment on stage with the Pope, who was entirely unfazed by the incident.

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Source: America Magazine, Arlington Catholic Herald via YouTube, Catholic Herald