This is a very touching story about a boy who really loves the pope.
Boy's wish comes true for papal audience
BY DIANE KRIEGER SPIVAK
Post Tribune
December 4, 2009
ST. JOHN -- Andrew Birlson celebrates Mass often, donning his priestly vestments, carrying his Bible, and singing songs, occasionally swinging an incense burner to offer a blessing.
Andrew is 9.
His vestments were handmade by his grandma and his mom, Theresa, and his incense burner is a tealight holder on a chain.
He knows all the colors of a priest's vestments and when during the Catholic religious calendar they are worn.
"I have them all, white, purple, red, green, pink," he says, his bright eyes wide with enthusiasm.
Andrew lives in the same house his family has owned for 150 years, and is a member of the same church his family has attended just as long, St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, just down the highway.
His faith, his mom says, is passionate, which is why Andrew, unlike thousands of other gravely ill children, told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to go to Rome to visit the pope.
The third-grader at St. John Evangelist School has a rare genetic disorder called citrullinemia. His body does not produce the enzyme necessary to digest protein, so his mother has to monitor everything he eats. He has had 200 blood draws and six hospitalizations this year.
If he ingests too much protein, the ammonia levels in Andrew's body rise to dangerous levels. He begins vomiting and could go into a coma.
That's what happened when he was 3 days old, when he suffered brain damage and almost died. At Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Theresa and Bob Birlson pinned a cross to their infant son's bed and told him Baby Jesus and Mary would be with him.
Andrew also became sick on Nov. 18 when he, his parents and three of his four sisters (18-month-old Elizabeth stayed home with grandma), had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
"We were waiting in the security room and Andrew got sick," Theresa Birlson said.
"I threw up two times," Andrew piped in.
Already in the VIP section behind the cardinals and bishops, Andrew was moved to the front of the line where the spiritual leader to 1.1 billion Roman Catholics placed his hands on Andrew and blessed him.
"I said, 'I love you' to the pope," Andrew said, looking at a photo of the pope kissing him on the forehead.
After the papal audience an ambulance whisked Andrew away to Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu hospital where he spent the next four days.
Make-A-Wish handled all the details of the family's unexpectedly extended stay, and Andrew was able to enjoy his last day in Rome.
"He wanted to go back to St. Peter's," his mom said. Big sister Olivia, 15, videotaped him running through St. Peter's Square that day, chasing the pigeons.
Andrew's answer as to why he wanted to visit the pontiff is simple.
"Because I love the pope," he says, breaking into yet another song from Sunday Mass.
It was Andrew's only wish. He wouldn't even offer a back-up when asked by Make-A-Wish volunteers. In fact, Sophia Morton, who has been with the Greater Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky chapter of Make-A-Wish for 10 years, said she remembers only one other child out of 6,000, an Ohio boy, who asked to see the pope.
It was Andrew's faith that helped him get to Rome, a feat much more complicated to carry out than a trip to Disney World, where the vast majority of Make-A-Wish kids want to go.
To be considered, Andrew had to write a letter to Make-A-Wish telling why he wanted to visit the pope.
His sisters, however, told their mom that a letter wouldn't do justice to their little brother's religious zeal.
"Words can't describe Andrew as far as his faith goes," Theresa Birlson said.
Instead, the girls videotaped Andrew celebrating a "Mass," singing his songs and showing his passion for life.
The DVD included photographs of Andrew with various priests he knows.
Andrew rattles off their names, Father Maletta, Father Larry, Bishop Melczek and on and on.
When he was smaller, Andrew would hug the statue of the Blessed Mother holding Baby Jesus when they passed it in church.
"Or he would point and say, 'That's not Baby Jesus, that's me,' Theresa Birlson said. "Things like that led us to believe Blessed Mother was taking care of him."
Her son sometimes tells her, "Jesus snuggles with me at night when I'm trying to go to sleep."
"He's just so on fire with love for Jesus," Theresa Birlson said. "It's all so unprovoked, my husband and I said it's got to be a connection with heaven."
Time for sightseeing
In Rome the family did make time to see ruins and artifacts, including a piece of the crib from the manger in which Baby Jesus lay.
They walked to the top of St. Peter's on a stairway hundreds of years old and so small a rope was hung to hold onto because there was no room for a handrail.
"When we got to the top we could see all of Rome," Theresa Birlson said. "The trip was once in a lifetime, maybe even more.
"It was so cool," she said. "Who gets to shake the pope's hand and get a physical blessing from his consecrated hands?" she said. "For those hands to be placed on our son's head was so overwhelming. It was an honor and a blessing."
Pope Benedict also blessed all assembled and any religious articles they had brought. The Birlsons were prepared, with an entire carry-on bag full of medals, rosaries and prayer books for friends and family, which Andrew insisted on carrying himself.
"We saw this as a pilgrimage not only for our son but our whole family," Theresa Birlson said.
She said Make-A-Wish was "outstanding" in handling Andrew's illness.
She says that while her son's illness has been a drain on the family, "Spiritually he's brought our faith to a whole new level.
"We would go to Mass in the past, but the way he changed us is so far beyond what we could have imagined. He's truly a blessing to us."