Lorena, Brazil, Jan 5, 2022 / 18:45 pm
During World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, in 2013, a boy made his way through the crowd to hug Pope Francis tearfully. That boy, now a young man, is discerning religious life.
The news was released Jan. 3 by the Bishop of Lorena, Joaquim Wladimir Lopes Dias, who in a Facebook post shared the photo of Pope Francis hugging Nathan de Brito, then nine years old, and another photo showing him now as a young man dressed as a postulant of the Order of Friars Minor in Rondonópolis.
Many faithful, especially in Brazil, remember the image of Nathan de Brito hugging the Holy Father.
Recordings show Nathan going after the passing popemobile and managing to get security to pick him up and take him to the vehicle. The little boy is then seen clinging to and hugging the Pope several times with tears streaming down his face as he resisted efforts to pull him away from the pope.