The Pope's Meeting with A Special Group of Young People Today

Back in February Benedict's general prayer intention was on the well-being of the mentally handicapped. The Pope said: "That the mentally handicapped may not be marginalized, but respected and lovingly helped to live in a way worthy of their physical and social condition."

I was pretty pumped for Mike Huckabee during the U.S primary election. So I was reading Huckabee 24/7 it seemed. The Pope's general intention made me recall at the time a news story about Huckabee when he a preacher,I had just read weeks earlier

In 1984 at Immanuel Baptist, he preached about leading a revival where worshippers rejoiced as prominent members of the community _ an attorney, a businessman _ accepted Jesus. He said he was heartbroken that people overlooked a young mentally retarded woman who also came forward.
"She always came alone and left alone. And to all outward appearances, nobody really cared," he said. "But God made a very big announcement that night. Although she may sit in that pew by herself, he loved her."

Amy Welborn has a link to a story at Beauty and Healing Among the Saints. Read it. Countless thousands of Catholics and Protestants are doing the same work. Work among a people made in the image of God that to be truthful whose presence sometimes makes us feel uncomfortable or awkward. We all need to get past that.

It perhaps is sign of the above that a meeting the Pope today in New York has not really garnered a lot of headlines. It is not the White House, the Bishops, or the UN but I bet the Holy Father thinks it is just as important. It what is generally described in many papers as a meeting with youth we see:
4:30 p.m. - The Pope arrives via motorcade at the front of main seminary building. Cardinal Edward M. Egan and Bishop Gerald T. Walsh, rector of the seminary welcome the Pope. The Pope will enter the seminary and proceed forward to the chapel sanctuary. In the audience approximately 50 young people with disabilities and their caregivers.

I hope some those young people that will have both physical and mental disabilities in the short prayer service have an encounter with the Living Christ as are noted in the stories above.