Rape victim consoled, encouraged by call from Pope Francis
August 30, 2013 - Pope Francis called a 44-year old rape victim in his native Argentina,
who had written to him, assuring her she is not alone. “The Pope told me he receives
thousands of letters each day, but that what I wrote moved him and touched his heart,”
Alejandra Pereyra said in an interview with the National University of Cordoba’s Canal
10 TV station. “When I heard the Pope’s voice, it was like feeling the hand of God,”
she said. The woman explained that in her letter, she asked the Holy Father for help
and explained that she had been raped on two occasions by a police officer, who later
threatened her. On Sunday afternoon, her cell phone rang, and when she asked who
it was, the voice said, “It’s the Pope.” “I was petrified,” Pereyra confessed. The
conversation lasted about half an hour and centered on “faith and trust.” “The Pope
listened attentively to my story,” the woman said. “I’ll do anything now to go to
the Vatican. He told me he would meet with me.” The woman told the television station
that justice has been thwarted because local officials have covered up the crime,
refusing to hear her story and even giving a promotion to the alleged perpetrator.
“Now I know that I am not alone and I will pick myself up again,” Pereyra said. “The
Pope told me that I am not alone and that I should have faith that justice will be
done.” The phone call is the latest in a series of similar personal phone calls that
Pope Francis has made since he became Pope in March. Other recipients of recent Papal
phone calls include an Italian man who has struggled to forgive God after the murder
of his brother, a young doorman at the Jesuit motherhouse in Rome, the Pope’s shoemaker
in Argentina, and the owner of the kiosk in Buenos Aires that delivered his daily
paper. (Source: CNA)