On August 21, Pope Francis delivered a message that he wanted everyone to contemplate. His message had to do with people who practice the hypocrisy of “spiritual tourism” and how it essentially ruins the church.

“Christians who focus more on being superficially close to the Church rather than care for their fellow brothers and sisters are like tourists who wander around aimlessly,” he said.

These superficial types of people are everywhere — more than you think.

“A life based only on profiting and taking advantage of situations to the detriment of others inevitably causes inner death,” Pope Francis said.

He continues to talk about how people say they are close to the Church when really they are just looking out for their own personal needs.

“And how many people say they are close to the Church, friends of priests and bishops yet only seek their own interests. These are the hypocrisies that destroy the Church.”

To everyone’s surprise, a young girl began to walk up to the Pope as he continued to talk. Her name was Clelia Manfellotti and she is 10-years-old from Naples.

She was diagnosed with autism, according to American Magazine.

Midway through his weekly sermon, the little girl was able to slip away from her mother and approach the Pope on stage. She was wearing a bright pink t-shirt with the word “Love” printed on the front.

When Clelia made it to the big marble stage, she caught a glance of herself on the big screen and quickly got distracted. While continuing to watch her self on the screen, she struck several different poses. She jumped, lied down, ran back and forth, made funny faces, clapped, and even stared at Pope Francis for a while. Safe to say, the little lady wasn’t shy.

How did Pope Francis react to this break in his talk? He simply smiled.

“Let her be. God speaks for the children,” he told his security shortly after. “Let her be, don’t worry.”

The little girl remained on the stage for about five minutes or so before her mother came up on stage to finally retrieve her. The audience applauded the Pope and the little girl. He went on to tell the audience that this was God sending a message and that Clelia was beautiful.

After some time passed, Clelia was back on stage. Pope Francis wanted to use this opportunity to explain a very important message to the audience. “This poor girl is a victim of an illness and she does not know what she is doing,” he said.

“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?’” he asked everyone, including us who have seen this viral video.

Thank you to Pope Francis for this beautiful message!

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Source: Shareably