You might recall that Pope Francis has a tendency to call unsuspecting Catholics at home on the telephone. Well, my friends, it seems he’s done it again (via the Telegraph):
Stefano Cabizza, 19, an information technology student from near Padua in northern Italy, wrote a letter to the new Pope a few weeks ago in which he described his life and expressed hopes that he would find a job at the end of his studies.
He then thought nothing more of it.
So he was stunned to have the leader of the world's 1.2bn Catholics phone him up for a chat.
In fact the Pope could not reach him on his first attempt – Mr Cabizza was not at home – and had to try a second time.
"I couldn't believe it. We laughed and joked for about eight minutes. He called me around five o'clock after finding that I was not at home the first time around.
"He asked me to pray for him and then he gave me a blessing. It was the most beautiful day of my life."
Pope Francis told the student to address him as 'tu' rather than use the much more formal 'lei' during the conversation.
"He said to me, do you think the Apostles would have used the polite form with Christ? "Would they have called him your excellency? They were friends, just as you and I are now, and with friends I'm accustomed to using 'tu'."
Mr Cabizza said it had been "a fantastic experience" to talk one-to-one with the Argentine Pope and that he was struck by his "humility and his closeness to ordinary Catholics".
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If anything, this should encourage Catholics and non-Catholics alike to start writing letters to Pope Francis. Who knows? He might even get back to you.
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