Pope Francis thanked for witnessing the gospel to the people with mental disabilities and their families on Saturday in a meeting with them. “Every person, even and especially the smallest and the most vulnerable, is loved by God and has a place in the Church and in the world,” Pope Francis said. In an encounter with the French association Faith and Light, the Pope said that the group’s message of love and acceptance is at “the heart of the Gospel.”
The association was established 50 years ago with a pilgrimage for people with mental disabilities to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. The Pope commended the group for bringing together Christians from different communities, including Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. He said that this sign of communion is a concrete seed of unity.