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Holy Innocents students get surprise meeting with Pope Leo after school vandalism

Sometimes God’s providence and blessings are so obvious that they practically come with a spotlight.

That’s a little where the students and staff at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach find themselves, having spent the first few days of February dealing with the ramifications of a heartbreaking desecration of their school hall and chapel, and less than two weeks later shaking hands with none other than Pope Leo XIV.

Holy Innocent’s nine-person senior class, four teachers, religious leaders, and family were in Rome on Feb. 11 when they got an unexpected audience with Pope Leo, who gave them his blessing — and prayers — following the vandalism of their school, which included a shattered life-size Virgin Mary statue that had been guarding the campus since its opening in 1958, and a ruptured bronze tabernacle that had been thrown to the ground.

Read full article on Angelus News


(Photo Courtesy: OSV News photo/Vatican Media via CPP)