Five years ago during a family holiday in Italy, the Pereira family from Betalbatim, Salcete, in South Goa, experienced a moment they still cherish. The sight of the supreme pontiff blessing their three-year old daughter, Vania, surprised the family.
Though Vania, now eight years sold, may not remember the encounter vividly, the feeling of being cared by the Pope, still lingers in the mind of her family, who still feel the blessing lingering on.
The Pereira family—two parents and three siblings—were on a pilgrimage to Rome and seeing the Pope was on their agenda.
On May 1, 2019, not only did they see him but the youngest of the family, Vania, then three, was picked up by the Pontifical Swiss guard and handed over to Pope Francis. For a moment the family was bewildered, yet Vania’s sister Valanka and brother Nathan managed to capture this “happiest moment in their lives on video and a picture.
“I was actually with my phone on video mode waiting to capture the closest moments with the Pope and suddenly I saw my sister being handed over to the Pope. I was lucky to capture the action on camera,” Valanka relives the moment.
“Despite being picked up by the Pope’s man from my father’s shoulders and handed over to the pontiff and then handed back, my young sister seemed pretty comfortable,” recollects Valanka as she shows her video.
As the weather was bad, the Pereira family, according to Valanka, were standing right behind, to make a dash to a safe place just in case it started raining.
“I was totally floored when they took my daughter from my shoulders and handed her over to the Pope,” recollects Vania’s father Joe who on the video can be heard saying, “Thanks, thanks, thank you,” after Vania was handed back to him.
“There was nothing more I could say. That was the only word that I remembered in those moments. The experience was too mind boggling,” added Joe.
There was nothing more I could say. That was the only word that I remembered in those moments. The experience was too mind boggling
Joe, Vania's father
“My daughter was young when this incident happened so her recollection of being held by the Pope was and still is of having made a friend,” says her mother Natasha.
“I cried when I got the news of his death and I went and prayed. We lost a great father, one who loved and cared for the poor and my granddaughter is lucky to have been embraced and blessed by him,” said Vania’s grandmother Carafina Pereira.
I cried when I got the news of his death and I went and prayed. We lost a great father, one who loved and cared for the poor
Carafina Pereira, Vania's grandmother
At the entrance of the Pereira residence is the photo of Vania in the arms of Pope Francis which tells the story of the late pontiff's love for children.
As Goa mourns the death of Pope Francis, the magic of his love for children can be seen in the eyes of Vania Pereira.