Pontiff visits care centre

BY DOREEN ABI RAAD, CNS
POPE BENEDICT’S first stop in Jordan was at a Church-run facility for people with disabilities, a place he said demonstrated how suffering could change people for the better.
The Pope told the crowd at Amman’s Regina Pacis centre: “Standing in your midst, I draw strength from God.” Arriving directly from the airport May 8, the Pope said that “in our own trials, and standing alongside others in their struggles, we glimpse the essence of our humanity; we become, as it were, more human. And we come to learn that, on another plane, even hearts hardened by cynicism or injustice or unwillingness to forgive are never beyond the reach of God,” because every heart “can always be opened to a new way of being, a vision of peace”.
The centre, established in 2004 by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is operated by three Comboni Missionary Sisters and a team of teachers, therapists and volunteers to educate and care for Muslims and Christians with disabilities.
The Pope said: “At times it is difficult to find a reason for what appears only as an obstacle to be overcome or even as a pain – physical or emotional – to be endured. Yet faith and understanding help us to see a horizon beyond our own selves to imagine life as God does.”