Pope blesses faith-formation students

Pope Francis is praying for the six students who were in last year’s fifth-grade faith-formation class at Holy Family Parish in Auburn, as well as a substitute catechist who taught the class on Palm Sunday.

That day Suzanne Marullo, the substitute catechist, likened Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to Pope Francis’ recent celebration of his first Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. She encouraged her students to design and write congratulatory cards to Pope Francis and mailed them to the Vatican. Several weeks later she received a response from a Vatican official.

"His Holiness Pope Francis was pleased to receive your kind messages. He thanks all of you for writing to him and he is grateful for your prayers. The Holy Father will pray for you and your teachers, and he sends his blessing," wrote Msgr. Peter B. Wells, an assessor in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Marullo was delighted to receive the Vatican correspondence in the mail and sent a copy of the letter, along with a color photograph of Pope Francis, to each of the children who had sent a card to the new pope.

"Holy Family Parish is so thrilled at you being blessed by Pope Francis that a frame is going to be made for the original letter and placed in the vestibule of our church. Thereby all of our faith community can read the letter and share in Pope Francis’ blessing," Marullo wrote to her students.