Pope Francis has signed a “sick note” for the youngest participant of the Synod.
19-year-old Wyatt Olivas, an American student, half-jokingly drafted a letter explaining to his professors that he needed to recover from his work at the Vatican before resuming classes.
With a smile, the Pope agreed to sign, writing “Francis” in his tiny handwriting. It’s true, you are important,” Francis told him.
Olivas thanked him for inviting him and thus giving a voice to that group of young people who – as he had mentioned in interviews before the event in Rome – often feel somewhat cut off from decision-making in the Church.
Olivas is a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, a missionary at the Catholic youth programme Totus Tuus, and a catechist in his home diocese of Cheyenne,
He was supposed to leave Rome on Monday, October 30th, arriving in the USA early Tuesday morning. But his lecture room is a three-hour drive away, and the potential for snow on the roads made the drive uncertain. Read more