Year: 2014
Breastfeed babies if you want, pope tells mothers in Sistine Chapel
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis baptized 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday and told their mothers, including one who was married in a civil service rather than in church, to have no qualms about breast-feeding them there. Unlike his predecessors, who usually delivered long and theology-laden homilies at the yearly baptism event, the pope offered a brief, improvised homily of some 300 words centered on the children. Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are some of the world's most celebrated works of art. But the pope told the mothers not to feel intimidated by the surroundings.