In St. Peter’s Square, among thousands of faithful, a baby dressed in a white cassock and zucchetto did something no adult managed to do: stop Pope Leo XIV in his tracks.
His mother had dressed him with every detail — the white fabric, the small pontifical cap. She lifted him above the crowd in the hope that someone would notice him. The pope noticed him. Leo XIV turned, came closer, took the baby’s little head in his hands and blessed him slowly, while those present fell silent.
The baby, oblivious to everything, looked on with those enormous eyes that newcomers to the world have. Two popes face to face — one with decades of faith, the other with only months of life.