This image of Spider-Man meeting Pope Francis after his General Audience went viral online, reaching all corners of the globe. <\/p>\n
Yet under the mask wasn't Peter Parker, but Mattia Villardita, a 27-year-old from Italy who visits sick children in hospitals dressed as the famous superhero. <\/p>\n
After being in the hospital for much of his childhood due to a congenital disorder, Mattia says he was inspired to bring joy to children who spend a lot of time in hospitals like he did. <\/p>\n
MATTIA VILLARDITA<\/strong> While he was in Rome to visit a hospital, Mattia was invited to the Pope's Audience, where he personally gave him a Spider-Man mask and made a special prayer request. <\/p>\n MATTIA VILLARDITA<\/strong> The Pope also had a request for Mattia:<\/p>\n -'There are also many children here who would like to say hello to you'. Just over a week later, Pope Francis was admitted to the same hospital in Rome which Mattia visited. After being discharged, the Pope greeted the same kids who Mattia visited there just a few days before. <\/p>\n MATTIA VILLARDITA<\/strong> Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mattia continues to be a bright spot in the lives of sick children. During Italy's national lockdown, he made over 1,500 video calls to children stuck at home or in hospitals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n JM <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 7, 2021. After his General Audience the Pope met with an Italian man who visits sick children in hospitals as Spider-Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wIdGfT913P8","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bspidermanreturnseng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bspidermanreturnsint.mp4","type":"rrp","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n'I have a personal experience of this, it allows me to understand how the child feels and how their family is feeling, so it is looking going to visit my younger self. When I was a kid I used to dream that Spiderman would come through my window to visit me, so now I have become that dream for these children'.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n'I gave him a mask and told him that through that mask I see so much suffering on the part of children and their families everyday. I know he already does so, but I asked him to pray for these children and those who are in such great need of his prayers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n-'Thank you Holy Father'.
\n-'Go say hi to the kids afterwards...'<\/em><\/p>\n
\n'When I saw the pictures in the news of the Holy Father in the same hallways where I was I got very excited, and I'll admit I would have liked to be with him in that moment to bring some joy to those children'.<\/em><\/p>\n