Singapore welcomed Pope Francis in September: the story of a special moment
From blessing children at the National Stadium to meeting with residents of retirement homes, Pope Francis left a deep impression on people's hearts during his visit to Singapore in September. One moment in particular was described as an ‘unexpected gift’ by Lawrence Chong, organiser of the interreligious meeting at the Catholic Junior College (CJC) on 13 September and CEO of Consulus, an EoC consulting firm that aims to serve people, businesses and cities in their transfiguration for an economy of communion.
Wearing a red tie, Lawrence Chong greeted the Pope upon his arrival at the Catholic Junior College on the last day of his visit to Singapore. Images of the warm conversation between Chong and the pontiff, captured on live streaming, quickly went viral on social media and did not go unnoticed. ‘What a beautiful moment with the Pope,’ one of the comments to Chong's Facebook post. This sparked the interest of online newspaper AsiaOne, which headlined its piece, «A man had the “longest conversation” with Pope Francis at Catholic JC: what did they talk about?»
Lawrence, a consultant to the Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, told AsiaOne just a little bit about the two-minute interaction in Italian with Pope Francis: «I told him, ’Welcome Pope Francis, my name is Lawrence and I bring you many greetings from the members of the Focolare Movement». We asked Lawrence if he could tell us more about those special two minutes with Pope Francis.
«The pope stopped me, took me by the hand and asked, ‘Do you understand Italian?’ ‘Only a little,’ I replied. At that point Pope Francis, speaking slowly, said to me: ‘Well, listen carefully. Everything is only possible with God. Do you understand?’ And I: ‘Yes!’ and he continued: ‘This is very important, everything, even great things, are only possible with God. Is that OK?’ And I: ‘Yes!’ The pope concluded by recommending that I tell the members of the Focolare Movement that he is with them».
Pope Francis' previous interactions at the Catholic Junior College had been “diplomatic,” but this greeting, the longest, was possible because of “the right moment,” Lawrence explained. «He was really happy that morning seeing hundreds of young people in Singapore».
Pope Francis was in good spirits during the last event of his three-day visit to Singapore. «This is the speech I prepared»,
he said, and then engaged in a spontaneous exchange with the young people about the need to have courage and take risks. Chong had foreseen that the Pope might go off script and had prepared the young people's questions in advance.
«From previous experiences in Rome, I know that the Pope loves to interact with young people», Chong said, adding that the Pope prefers to connect with people rather than follow formalities.
During the press conference on the flight back to Rome, Pope Francis described the interreligious meeting as a ‘model of fraternity.’ «That dialogue session has become worldwide», concluded Chong, who intends to organise more interreligious dialogues in the future.
