Luca Re Sartù, 24, died after contracting a bacterial staph infection during his World Youth Day pilgrimage. Auxiliary Bishop Luca Raimondi of Milan said at young man’s funeral that the Pope had called his mother to console her.
“What the mother said to me,” Bishop Raimondi said, “was, word for word, ‘When you see him [the Pope], thank him for me, because he was exquisitely kind. He grieved with me, he cried with me, and above all, he was like a father. He consoled me as if he were my dad.’”