Pope invites Down Syndrome teen on car for a spin

June 19, 2013 @ 6:00 am


Pope Francis smiles as Alberto di Tullio, from Boiano, near Naples, Italy, sits in the pope's seat of his open-top car at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday June 19, 2013. Francis has given a 17-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome the ride of his life — sort of. Francis invited Alberto di Tullio up onto his open-top Mercedes at the end of his general audience Wednesday, letting him spin around on the white chair while tens of thousands of people looked on. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) | Zoom
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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has given a 17-year-old boy with Down Syndrome the ride of his life _ sort of.

Francis invited Alberto di Tullio up onto his open-top Mercedes at the end of his general audience Wednesday, letting him spin around on the pontiff's white chair while tens of thousands of people looked on.

The boy's father, Celestino di Tullio, told The Associated Press he choked up when Francis approached his son: "The pope saw him, embraced him. Then Alberto pointed to the car, and so he brought him up!"

Perhaps Francis' eye was caught by the blue-and-white-striped Argentine national soccer jersey Alberto was wearing _ a gift that the di Tullio's parish priest gave him Wednesday morning before they set out from Boiano, near Naples, for the audience.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (41)


  • Add A Comment

  • gaymarriedchristianfromhollywood wrote...
    Haters suck...
    March 13, 2013 2:45 pm
    Catholics are the largest charitable organization on the planet, feeding, clothing and healing more people than any other group ANYWHERE. Food for the Poor, Catholic Relief Services, St. Jude's and America's Second Harvest total $5.6 BILLION, which is greater than #1 on the list for America. Not to mention Father Flannagan's homes, Catholic Medical Mission Board, Covenant House, thousands of charities from Missionaries to the Poor, Amigo's for Christ, soup kitches, homeless shelters & individual parishes. The Catholic Church has a nonprofit hospital system of 637 hospitals which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people in the US. But sure why not, lets just indict the whole faith on the 1.5% of morally corrupt sickos and the athholes who covered it up.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DonVigo wrote...
    The downside to the 80/20 rule.
    March 13, 2013 3:26 pm
    Twenty percent will always ruin it for the other eighty. Personally, I'm not a fan of the tennants of Catholosim, but only to the extent I don't follow them myself. For every bad news story I hear, I know a handful of folks under that sect that personify all the good things to come.

    Sadly, this IS MYNW.com, home to the most rampant and blatant population of trolls and sadsacks with nothing but hateful things to say on pretty much the entire internet.

    To those of you who follow this man, I hope he leads you into a better direcion. Seems to be a worthy man for the position. Mozeltov.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • gaymarriedchristianfromhollywood wrote...
    Todah!
    March 13, 2013 4:56 pm
    :)
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    DonVigo
    March 14, 2013 5:48 am
    What's wrong? You don't like the Catholic teaching of God because they have not changed in the direction the Evil in this world wants them to?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    He holds no power over my body.
    March 14, 2013 5:37 am
    gaymarriedchristianfromhollywood, you will have no problem when Pope Francis continues the Catholic idea that Homosexuality is wrong and a sin?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • gaymarriedchristianfromhollywood wrote...
    I take major issue with it.
    March 14, 2013 7:59 am
    I take issue with many of the things the Catholic church teaches. But the Church too can change. It was John Paul II that included slavery in a list of things that were intrinsically evil. And the church used to be for the death penalty and now oppose it. If I were gay I don't think I would be Catholic, but I don't think the church can stop a rising tide. Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that the need to prevent diseases like AIDS could outweigh the church's long opposition to the use of condoms just two years ago. The hope spring's eternal.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Funny news bits..
    March 14, 2013 7:39 am
    Less than two weeks ago the international news headlines were loaded with the story of the North Koreans getting ready to push the button on a nuke pointed at the south. Could happen at any moment we were were led to believe. But wait!! Here comes the new pope headlines. The coverage of this "event" was insane...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }