Pope Leo blesses a Taiwanese baby in Vatican City

Rome, Oct. 23 (CNA) A Taiwanese baby received the "papal blessing" from Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday when His Holiness made a public appearance around Vatican City.

The apostolic blessing was made public over social media platform Threads by a Taiwanese Catholic identified only by her account name Ya Shieng Lin.

In the post, the Bishop of Rome just happened to be making a public round on the popemobile on Wednesday, an appearance that was by chance caught by a Taiwanese Catholic delegation from Taipei's Our Lady of SongShan Catholic Church.

The video attached to the post showed that as Pope Leo passed the Taiwanese delegation, a member of the Taipei church lifted a baby from among the crowd.

Pope Leo then signaled for the popemobile to stop, and a member of the Swiss Guard received the child to pass to him.

The Pope gave a papal blessing to the Taiwanese child, to the delight of the Taiwanese delegation.

The baby appeared calm and composed as the child was passed around in public.

According to Lin's post, she is the baby's mother, and she and her husband had been juggling the care of their infant and another child while traveling with their church group.

By the time the family arrived at the Holy See, Lin said she thought they would be lucky just to hear a sermon inside Vatican City.

At the suggestion of their parish priest, Rev. Vincent Balsan, Lin said they decided to present their baby during Pope Leo's round, adding that they felt blessed by God to have ended their trip on such an unforgettable note.