God bless Pope Francis.

Via Daily Mail:

His actions have touched many across the world and revitalised the Catholic church

But for Pope Francis, comforting this stricken man after today’s weekly audience in St Peter’s Square was another simple act of compassion.

In scenes strikingly similar to his encounter with the disfigured Vinicio Riva two weeks before, the pontiff first spoke with the worshipper and then put his arms around him, blessing him.

The man’s identity is not known, nor are the details of what caused such terrible damage to his face. […]

Earlier this year, Francis tweeted to his 3.2million followers: ’The Pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable.’

The so-called ‘Pope Francis Effect’ has been credited with a 20 per cent rise in Catholic congregations in Britain, and similar boosts around the world.

New and lapsed Catholics are surging back to the confession box ‘by the hundreds or thousands’, according to the Italian Centre for Studies of New Religions.

In Italy half of priests have noted a marked rise in support for the church.

The Italian opinion poll Opinioni reported this week that more than four in five Italians have a ‘positive’ or ‘extremely positive’ opinion of the Pope.