At the end of this morning’s General Audience, a group of artists of the Ronny Roller Circus performed for Pope Francis in Paul VI Hall. Clowns, fire-eaters, acrobats, dancers, jugglers offered virtuosity on the musical basis of classical pieces. The Pontiff, as has happened on other occasions, had a lot of fun and expressed his appreciation of circus people. It’s a show that puts us in contact with beauty, and beauty always draws us up, beauty makes us go beyond,” he said. “And beauty is a way to go to the Lord. Thank you. Thank you for this show. Thank you. Then, at the moment of greetings, Pope Francis wished to express affectionate words again to the artists of the Ronny Roller Circus. “It’s curious, behind this that they have given us, this beauty, there are hours and hours and hours of training, of work that end by producing such a show.”
The Pope’s Gift
On several occasions in the past, circus artists have performed for the Holy Father, who has described them as “bearers of beauty.” In 2018, Pope Francis expressed concretely his predilection for the circus through a gesture of solidarity: the Apostolic Almonry invited the poor, the homeless, refugees, a group of prisoners, and needy families, together with the volunteers accompanying them to take part in a circus show. ”See then, that this gift offered by the circus artists, who with constancy, commitment, and many sacrifices succeed in creating and giving beauty to themselves and to others, may also become for our poorest brothers and encouragement to overcome the harshness and difficulties of life, which so often seem too great and insurmountable,” explained Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Holy Father’s Almoner.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
