Many have seen these wonderful photos of Pope Francis embracing a child in St. Peter’s Square after Easter Sunday Mass. The child, Dominic Gondreau, who is 8 years old and has cerebral palsy, is seen being held and kissed by Pope Francis while smiling and struggling to put his arm around the pontiff in giving his own greeting. Dominic is the son of Paul Gondreau, Professor of Theology at Providence College, who is serving as the Faculty Resident Director at PC/CEA’s Center for Theology and Religious Studies in Rome this semester, joined by his wife Christiana and their 5 kids. 
The next day, Dr. Gondreau shared his reflections on this experience in a guest post on the Catholic Moral Theology website: A Special Vocation: To Show People How To Love, where he writes: Why is the whole world so moved by images of this embrace? A woman in the Square, moved to tears by the embrace, perhaps answered it best when she said to my wife afterward, “You know, your son is here to show people how to love.” You can also watch the encounter with Dominic in this video of the Pope greeting the faithful after the Mass.
