Pope cold calls Italian nun on her cell phone
(ANSA) – Naples, November 18 – Pope Francis on Monday caused a huge commotion among school kids in the poverty- and Mafia-ridden town of Casal di Principe when he called a nun who was teaching class there on her cell phone.
Sister Teresa, from the order of the Daughters of Saint Anne, teaches school in the run-down, crime-infested town lying in the midst of the so-called Land of Fires, where the Mafia custom of burning piles of illegally dumped toxic waste at night has caused the cancer rate to spike.
She was among 150,000 people who sent the pontiff a postcard with a photo of the kids who have died of cancer in this area, and Francis responded by calling her on her cell phone, while she was in the middle of class.
Sister Teresa immediately got on the phone to Father Maurizio Patriciello, who is the pastor of Saint Paul the Apostle parish in the town of Caivano, near Naples, and who personally prepared the 150,000 postcards.
”We now expect him here. I hope he will heed our call for help, as I also hope for a phone call from him”, said Father Maurizio.
”Sister Teresa said the kids in her class got incredibly excited as soon as she mentioned the Holy Father was on the other end”. Francis has called a number of people out of the blue since becoming pope in March.