Pope Francis baptized 28 infants during Mass in the Sistine chapel yesterday and when some of the babies began to cry during the service, he told the mothers present to feel free to feed their babies “just as Mary breastfed Jesus.”

Vatican Radio is reporting on the service where 28 babies – 15 boys and 13 girls - were baptized by Pope Francis. During the service, the Pope gave an off-the-cuff homily in which he instructed the parents about how to raise their children in the faith, saying it’s not just about reciting the Creed on Sundays at Mass, but rather by believing in the truth, trusting in God and teaching others with the example of their lives.

“Faith is also the light which grows in our hearts – that’s why a lighted candle is given to every person being baptized. In the early years of the Church, baptism was called ‘illumination’ to show the way in which faith helps us see things in a different light.”

He then reminded the parents who brought their children for baptism that they have the task of making their child’s faith grow and nurturing it so that it may bear witness to others.”

As the ceremony drew on, the sounds of crying began to pick up, at which time the Pope joked that “the concert” had begun.

“The babies are crying because they are in an unfamiliar place, or because they had to get up early, or sometimes simply because they hear another child crying. Jesus did just the same,” he said, adding that he liked to think Our Lord’s first sermon was the sound of him crying in the stable in Bethlehem.

“And if your children are crying because they are hungry” he told the mothers to nurse their babies “without fear, with total normality . . . just as Mary breastfed Jesus.”

This is not the first time the Pope encouraged women to feel free to breastfeed in Church. While baptizing infants in the Sistine Chapel in 2015, he also told women to feel free to nurse their babies.

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