Thursday, August 29, 2013

Pass to Pope Francis

NFL STAR PASSES TO POPE FRANCIS

BY STEPHEN WHITE

Philip Rivers is the quarterback for the San Diego Chargers. But you probably knew that. He’s also Catholic. You might have known about that. (It’s not a secret.) What you probably didn’t know about, unless you read the L.A. Times, is this charming little episode involving Pope Francis and the youngest of Rivers’ six kids.

The Times has the story:

SAN DIEGO — The most meaningful pass of Philip Rivers’ life wound up in the arms of the pope.

It happened in May, when the San Diego Chargers quarterback and his extended family visited the Vatican and were in a crowd of thousands for a Wednesday papal audience. Rivers, a devout Catholic, had a prime spot in the crowd and was holding the youngest of his six children, Pete, who will turn 2 in October.”

I was about 10 yards away, and the crowd kind of opened up,” Rivers said. “Pope Francis just kind of motioned like, ‘Bring him to me.’ Pete was like, ‘No! What are you doing?!” But we passed him to the pope. It was awesome. The pope kissed him, blessed him. We got great pictures of it.”

Not the most consequential story, I know. But given the alternatives in the news these days, I’ll take it.