Pope Francis makes unscheduled visit to Manila street children
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop at a center for street children in Manila Friday shortly after celebrating mass in the Filipino capital. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed that the Pope visited a home for street children run by the ANAK-Tnk charitable foundation. Fr. Lombardi said the Pope spent about half an hour with some 320 children who celebrated his visit to the centre with songs and dance.
ANAK-Tnk launched the letter-writing campaign “Even us?” last September requesting a visit from the Pope. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila, brought a thousand letters from the children, plus a video about the lives of street children, to Pope Francis in Rome at the beginning of October last year.
After his visit with the children, Pope Francis was to have lunch at the nunciature in Manila.