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On November 5, 2024, Pope Francis visited former Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino in her apartment in central Rome. The Pontiff brought flowers and chocolate to this woman of the political left, who is today greatly weakened by lung cancer.
“This morning, with great surprise and emotion, His Holiness paid me a much-appreciated visit,” said Emma Bonino, who was a member of the European Parliament for almost 16 years and Foreign Minister in Romano Prodi's government from 2006 to 2008.
“He exudes an extraordinary humanity,” she wrote, confiding that the head of the Catholic Church offered her "a magnificent bouquet of roses and chocolates."
The photo accompanying the text shows the pontiff and the politician seated in their wheelchairs soaking up the sun on a flower-filled terrace of a central Rome apartment.
Shortly before, the Pope had visited the Gregorian University to give a speech. Before heading back to the Vatican in his white Fiat 500, he made a detour to pay his respects to Bonino, who has been battling lung cancer since 2015 and was forced to spend a week in hospital in October.
Personality of Italy
On her X account, the Italian confided her joy at hearing the Pope tell her that she is “an example of freedom and resistance.”
Francis developed a close relationship with her over the years, praising her work on behalf of migrants. He met her on several occasions at the Vatican. In 2016, he said in an interview that she was one of “the great personalities of today's Italy,” on a par with former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Of Piedmontese origin, like the Pope's grandparents, Emma Bonino became involved early on with the Radical Party and campaigned for the legalization of abortion. A convinced European, she claims to be progressive on societal issues, defending LGBT rights in particular.
“Patience ... we have to look at people, at what they do,” Pope Francis replied when asked about the distance separating the former minister and Church teaching on issues such as abortion, reports the newspaper L'Avvenire.
Bonino's social media post notes that the Holy Father greeted her today in the traditional Piedmontese way, "because of our common origins."
The Pope's surprise visits
This isn't the first time the Pope has made impromptu visits to personalities living in Rome.
In February 2021, he visited the home of Hungarian-born Italian novelist Edith Bruck. The meeting was an opportunity for the Jewish writer to bear witness to her “experience of the hell of the Nazi concentration camps.”
The Pope has also made visits to some of the merchants in the city. In January 2022, he went to bless a friend's record store that is a stone's throw from the Pantheon, and left with a classical music LP under his arm.
In 2015, he went to an optician in the Piazza del Popolo to have his glasses changed. The following year, he went to an orthopedic store not far from the Vatican to get new shoes.
