It's a familiar sight at papal events: Pope Francis departing from his security detail and wading into the crowd to embrace a child or lift a baby in the air.
Children from across the world have been writing to the Pope, and he answers. A new book, "Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World" compiles some of those letters and the Pope's responses. The letters were collected from parishes and social service agencies and compiled by Loyola Press in Chicago, a publishing arm of the pope's own Jesuit religious order.
The children often addressed the Pope as if he were their grandfather. "The hardest job in all of this was to take all of these wonderful letters" and whittle them down from 259 to a sampling of 30, said Tom McGrath, Loyola's director of Trade Publications and Parish Life Resources.
"The children had no problem, they knew exactly what they wanted to ask the pope. They didn't need to be prodded," McGrath said.
In all, 26 countries were represented in the letters and 14 languages. The letters were carried to the Vatican by Father Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit editor based in Rome. Originally Spadaro presented 21 letters to the Pope for response. "Pope Francis answered all of those and he was enjoying himself so much he decided to do nine more," McGrath said.
The letters were accompanied by drawings the children had made. "The Pope would read the letter, look at the child's picture, look at the drawing that accompanied the letter, and he would kind of look off into space and imagine the individual child, and it was as if he was talking to the child," McGrath said.
The letters came from children in Moslem, Hindu and Buddhist countries as well as majority Christian countries.
McGrath said one of his favorites is the pope's response to a letter written by seven-year-old William of the U.S. "I find it very moving. In fact, I can barely read it without choking up." McGrath said.
William wrote, "Dear Pope Francis, If you could do 1 miracle, what would it be?
The pope answered, "Dear William, I would heal children. I have never been able to understand why children suffer. It's a mystery to me. I don't have an explanation. I ask myself about this and I pray about your question. Why do children suffer? My heart asks the question. Jesus wept, and by weeping, he understood our tragedies. I try to understand too. Yes, if I could perform a miracle, I would heal every child. Your drawing makes me think: there is a big, dark cross and a rainbow and the sunshine behind it. I like that. My answer to the pain of children is silence, or perhaps a word that rises from my tears. I am not afraid to cry. You shouldn't be either."
All the letters were signed, "Francis."
"It's like being in the room with him and listening in to a very special conversation. It's him, it's the real man coming through loud and clear," McGrath said.
There's more of my interview with Tom McGrath in the audio file, including the pope's response to a 10-year-old boy in a Syrian refugee camp who asks, "Will the world be again as it was in the past?" And a letter from nine-year-old Judith of Belgium who wanted to know, "What makes you happy in your work as pope?"
WGLT's Judy Valente talks with Tom McGrath, Loyola's Director of Trade and Parish Life Resources, about what the children wanted to know from a pope many look to as a grandfather.
Today is Holy Thursday, also known in some churches as Maundy Thursday, the beginning of the Easter celebration, the most sacred time of the year for Christians.