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Melania Trump Reveals She Is A Practicing Catholic After Meeting Pope Francis

By JohnThomas Didymus
Published on: 03:07 PST, May 25, 2017

First Lady Melania Trump has revealed that she is a practicing Catholic. Melania revealed her Catholic faith after a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday. When she moves into the White House with her son Barron this summer, Melania, according to reports, will be the first Catholic to officially live in the White House as a member of a U.S. First Family since John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie.

Melania’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, reportedly confirmed on Wednesday, hours after Melania met the pope, that she is a practicing Catholic, according to the Daily Mail. The confirmation comes after speculation about Melania’s faith was sparked by reports that she was seen praying at the feet of the statue of the Madonna while visiting a Vatican-owned children’s hospital in Rome.

Melania was seen praying and placing flowers at the feet of the statue of the Blessed Virgin at the chapel of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital, the Catholic Herald reported. She had also earlier asked Pope Francis to bless the rosary beads she was holding in her hands when they met at the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on Wednesday.

Melania visited the Intensive Care Unit of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital where she met a young boy in urgent need of a donor heart. She talked with the boy and read to him while holding his hand. She also hugged him after reading to him.

The hospital management later confirmed that doctors had found a donor and that the boy would get the urgently needed transplant.

Melania issued a statement confirming the good news after she arrived in Belgium. She also tweeted about it.

“Upon landing in Belgium, I learned a young boy and his family who had been waiting for a heart transplant was informed that the hospital has found a donor,” she said in a statement, according to the Daily Mail.

“I read a book and held hands with this special little one just a few hours ago, and now my own heart is filled with joy over this news.”

Melania had told Francis when they met at the Vatican on Wednesday that she was looking forward to visiting the children’s hospital and meeting the children.

“To spend time speaking to and coloring with children who have such a positive spirit despite illness was an amazing gift,” she said in a statement, after she met the children at the hospital.

“The time I spent with the little ones in the Intensive Care Unit is something I will never forget, and I will pray for each of them daily.”

She prayed in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin at the Bambino Gesu hospital and laid flowers at the feet of the statue after she met the boy.

“Today’s visit with His Holiness Pope Francis @Pontifex is one I’ll never forget. I was humbled by the honor.”

President Trump also described the meeting as an “honor of a lifetime.”

The latest revelation about Melania’s faith solves the mystery surrounding her surprise recitation of the Lord’s Prayer when she opened a rally for her husband in Melbourne, Florida last February. While introducing Trump at the rally, she surprised everyone, including Trump, by reciting the Lord’s prayer. Her recitation of the Catholic prayer sparked speculation about her faith. But now in retrospect, it is understood that Melania recited the prayer as a practicing Catholic. Catholics often recite the Lord’s Prayer at the opening of important public and private events.

However, multiple observers noted that it is unclear when Melania was baptized. The Daily Mail, for instance, reported that she and her sister were not baptized as infants and that she did not take her First Holy Communion along with other children her age.

He father was a member of the Communist Party in Slovenia. The party was officially atheist, but it is claimed that her father joined the party only because he needed to be a member to find work. Despite the fact that the party was officially atheist, Melania’s family was religious. According to locals who knew Melania’s family during her childhood in the central Slovenian village of Sevnica, the family was forced to maintain an outward appearance of atheism due to pressure to conform with the requirements of the atheistic Communist Party.

The pressure to present an outward appearance of atheism explains why Melania and her sister were not baptized. It also explains why she did not take her First Holy Communion with other children her age.

[Featured Image By Franco Origlia/Getty Images]

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