Pope’s call to help the vulnerable turns to the autistic at Vatican conference

by Michelle Boorstein from The Washington Post:
57 countries will update one another on such issues as genetic research, pain management and government policies toward people with autism.
It will also begin with a Mass and a monsignor preaching on suffering and will include presentations on how the church can better include autistic people in the core aspects of Catholic life, such as the sacraments of confession and Holy Communion. It will end with an audience Saturday with Francis, an event advocates hope will significantly move the needle on awareness, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries.
Bob and Suzanne Wright, Catholics and co-founders of the major U.S. advocacy group Autism Speaks, will give a presentation at the conference.
“We speak at colleges and places like that, but they don’t reach large audiences,” said Bob Wright, former chairman of NBC/Universal and grandfather of a teenage boy with autism. “Then we started with the religious aspect, but the problem is there aren’t any leaders who have large numbers. Most religions are split up. We zeroed in on the pope, and this pope in particular, because he has such a gift for reaching out to people, and he wants the church to be more inclusive.”

Organizing any conference on autism — which affects one in every 68 children, according to Autism Speaks — is challenging because of the range of opposing views on such issues as the role of vaccines in autism spectrum disorder. The conference doesn’t appear to touch on vaccines but includes a presentation on other potential environmental impacts.

Pope invites a teen with Down syndrome on car for a spin

from Boston.com:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has given a 17-year-old boy with Down syndrome the ride of his life — sort of.

Francis invited Alberto di Tullio up onto his open-top Mercedes at the end of his general audience Wednesday, letting him spin around on the pontiff’s white chair while tens of thousands of people looked on.

The boy’s father, Celestino di Tullio, told The Associated Press he choked up when Francis approached his son: ‘‘The pope saw him, embraced him. Then Alberto pointed to the car, and so he brought him up!’’

Perhaps Francis’ eye was caught by the blue-and-white-striped Argentine national soccer jersey Alberto was wearing — a gift that the di Tullio’s parish priest gave him Wednesday morning before they set out from Boiano, near Naples, for the audience.