During the Jubilee of Mercy, the pope instituted what is already a tradition: dedicating one Friday afternoon a month to visit hospitals or people in need.
'Your Holiness, welcome to the periphery of the world.'
'55 minutes.'
'Have you seen how long the road is?'
On this occasion he visited a school, Elisa Scala, located on the outskirts of Rome.
The pope was received by about 200 students. The school was started in the 50s, during the demographic 'boom' of Italy. The emotion and tears from the students were uncontrollable.
The pope watched this performance by the young people, whose voices filled the pavilion of the institute.
The high point was when they turned off the lights and sang the song 'We are the world.'
Before leaving, Pope Francis directed these words to them.
'May the school always be a place of meeting, growth and formation. Have you understood this?'
The name of the school, Elisa, comes from one of its students, who died at the age of 11 due to leukemia. Additionally, they created a library where the books have been donated by individuals from around the world.
Pope Francis used his past skills as a professor to talk about reading.
'Remembering Elisa, who many said liked books which allowed her to travel to millions of places. Beautiful, no? When you start a book, you read and start traveling to all those places that the book talks about. It's true? Or are books boring? What do you think? Are they boring or not? But there are some boring books, right?'
Each book donated to Elisa's library has a dedication to her. More than 20,000 have arrived and the school has even had to make them available in town hall libraries. Elisa's parents were present at the meeting.
