Michael Haddad was paralyzed from the chest down in a jet ski accident when he was six years old. He was told that he would never walk again due to the spinal cord injury.

But the athlete and adventurer from Lebanon has found a way to walk using steel spine and orthotic leg braces.

Haddad greeted Pope Francis at the June 2 general audience and asked him to bless his Arctic mission. He is undertaking the trek with a team of scientists as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for the environment.

"When I told my story to the Holy Father, he put his hand on my head. I told him that we try to bring a message of humanity in favour of the earth and the environment. He blessed me, and I said: 'Father, pray for me,'" Haddad told Vatican News after the encounter.

"‘Pray for me at the North Pole,' the pope replied. I can't get this sentence out of my head. It gave me strength and much food for thought. I feel more committed, no longer alone, but together with the pope to try to make this change."

Haddad plans to make his Arctic trek in February or March 2022 after a previous attempt was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The adventurer has already walked the Pyramids of Giza plateau, scaled the Raouche Rock in Beirut, snowshoed the Black Summit, and completed two marathons using exoskeleton technology.

"As a person unable to walk, stand up and sit on their own, I decided to explore my potential. I have found that nothing is impossible," he said.

"This is thanks to two things: faith and determination. Faith in our Creator, faith in ourselves. Determination, in the certainty that within us there are unlimited powers to go forward and break every wall," he said.

Haddad, a Christian, gave the pope a branch of a cedar tree, a biblical symbol of Lebanon, and a photo of a church in an old cedar forest.

"The wood of those cedars has been connected to the earth for 10,000 years. So there is a double meaning: history and man's close connection to the planet. We lived in the forests, it is time to remind us, because without a healthy planet there is no healthy humanity. We must send this message to the world," he said.

"I decided to walk," he explained, "because earth is sitting in a wheelchair. We have to unite to save ourselves, to save our planet and I am doing it under one banner. The United Nations we stand united together all over the world to make this change. And we have to do it now."

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Vatican News

Francis was surrounded by nearly 20 dark-suited bodyguards during his tour through St Peter's Square aboard his open-sided popemobile, more than the normal 12 who usually jog alongside him.

At each of the two main gates to the square, six or eight carabinieri guards checked pilgrims with wands and searched bags, more than usual.

After Francis finished, carabinieri patrol cars constantly looped along the main boulevard leading to the square.

Francis himself alluded to the security situation in his remarks to the crowd of about 20,000, saying the Church must always keep its doors open.

"There are places in the world where you still don't have to lock your doors, but there are so many other places where the doors are barred shut, and where that has become normal," he said.

"We shouldn't give in to the idea that we have to use this system, which is also for security."

"Please, no armoured doors in the Church," he said. "Nothing. Open doors."

Meanwhile, Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano announced that drones will not be able to fly over Rome's air space during the Holy Year of Mercy, starting on December 8.

Following repeated threats attributed to ISIS on social media against Rome and the Vatican, security would be tightened around sites considered potential targets, particularly in and around St Peter's Square, Mr Alfano said.

"Particular attention has been dedicated to the risk of an attack from the air, using drones," he said.

Rome's prefect, Franco Gabrielli, said on Wednesday that law enforcement authorities were prepared to shoot down unauthorised drones and ultralight aircraft if they violate the airspace ban.

Sources

• Reuters
• Associated Press
• Image: Daily Mail

The Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, told Vatican Radio the extra General Audiences could possibly be on a Saturday.

Archbishop Gaenswein said that since the beginning of Pope Francis's pontificate in March 2013, 15 million people have been present for his General Audiences, Angelus addresses and special audiences in the Vatican.

The Pope's General Audience on August 26 will mark the 100th such occasion for Pope Francis.

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There will be no Wednesday general audience for July, although the Pope will continue his Sunday address and Angelus prayer.

During July, all audiences with the Pope are expected to be suspended, other than a meeting with members of the Catholic charismatic renewal movement on July 3 in St Peter's Square.

Pope Francis will not invite groups of Catholics to his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, for his early morning Mass throughout July and August.

Despite the reduced schedule, the 78-year-old Pope will visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay July 5-12, returning to the Vatican on July 13.

During his South American visit, the Pope will attend more than 37 events.

As Pope, and when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis has not taken full vacations.

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Speaking at his weekly audience at the Vatican on August 6, the Pope linked the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments and the Last Judgement.

Some 6000 people heard the Pope tell them he was so serious about Christians knowing Matthew 5:3-12, that he would read each beatitude out loud and then have them repeat it.

But one repetition of the text is not enough to "remember them and impress them on our hearts", the Pope said.

So he gave the crowd "homework", asking them to spend time in the coming days reading the text again, from the Bible "you always should have with you".

The beatitudes are "the path God indicates as his response to the desire for happiness present in each person and the perfection of the (Ten) Commandments", Francis explained.

But more than this, they are "a portrait of Jesus and his way of life".

But learning the beatitudes wasn't the only homework task the Pope handed out.

Alongside reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, Francis requested the crowd also study the Last Judgement in Matthew 25.

In addition to showing people the path to true happiness, the Pope said, Jesus gave "us the protocol according to which we will be judged".

No one, he said, is so important or has done so many other virtuous things that he or she can escape being asked the questions in Matthew 25.

"The Lord will recognise us if we have recognised his face in the face of the hungry, the poor, the marginalised, the sick and the lonely.

"These are fundamental criteria for verifying our Christian life," Francis continued.

The Pope said he uses the beatitudes and the questions from the Last Judgement in his own reflection on his actions at the end of each day.

He recommended this "simple" practice to others.

Living according to the beatitudes and the criteria listed in Matthew 25, he said, should fill each Christian with joy because together "they make our Christian life a beautiful and credible witness to the love of God for all the brothers and sisters we meet each day".

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Catholic World News
• Image: Catholic News Agency