There are those interactions that you will never be able to forget. One such experience for the Masciantonio family is the day their infant daughter saw Pope Francis in Philadelphia. By a stroke of luck, Donny Asper, a friend and FBI agent who was assisting with the pope’s security that day, called the family.
The family didn’t think twice when he instructed them to get downtown as quickly as possible. In the hopes that their little daughter Gianna would see the pope, Donny eagerly awaited the arrival of his friends Joey and Kristen. Joey and Kristen, who are both ardent Catholics, believed that a visit with the pope would be beneficial for their little daughter, who suffers from a tumor and a very uncommon blood disease.
The crowds of people in the downtown area, however, all want to do the same, meaning that the family never truly anticipated it to happen. As Gianna’s immune system was already so weak, the family had first been hesitant about the notion of concern that it might worsen amid the throng. They decided to go after Kristen and the doctors insisted, and boy are they glad they did.
Knowing that the pope would be passing nearby, the family traveled to the famed James S. Byrne Courthouse on Market Street. Joey hoisted baby Gianna as high as he could as he spotted the pope approaching them. This caught the attention of a security guard, who immediately snatched her and carried her over to the pope. The subsequent scene was something that mom and dad would never forget. The pope gave baby Gianna a kiss on the head there in front of hundreds of people.
The family resumed their habit of taking their daughter to the doctor when the first joy subsided, but six weeks later, new scans of her health reduced the entire family to tears. Gianna’s tumor has considerably lessened in size. Whether people choose to think it was a miracle or not, the family claims that “The kiss was God’s work, that’s for sure” and not the pope’s kiss that rescued her.
