(OSV News) — A photograph of Pope Leo XIV blessing Marie-Garance, a 10-year-old girl in a blue dress who has multiple disabilities, went viral after the pope encountered her in Paris Sept. 26.

A police officer lifted the girl into his arms as the pope passed in the popemobile along the Champs-Elysees before Mass at Place de la Concorde. 

Agence France Press photographer Ludovic Marin captured the moment the pope leaned toward Marie-Garance, took her hand and met her eyes. Her adoptive mother, Clotilde Noël, told OSV News the blessing represented vulnerable people who are often set aside because they are different. 

Following the special moment, Noël gave numerous interviews on television and in newspapers, speaking about the special blessing for her daughters.

Noël’s other daughter, Pépa Teresa, also got a papal blessing that day, but was not photographed. She uses a wheelchair, though her disability is slightly less severe. 

“I agreed to share my story because, for me, these blessings went far beyond them and our family,” Noël told OSV News. 

‘Trust and a sense of surrender’

“Marie-Garance was carried into the pope’s arms and looked at him with trust and a sense of surrender,” she said. “Carried by others, she represented that entire segment of humanity that is so often set aside because it is different, and particularly vulnerable.”

After that moment, there was a moment of silence around the Noël family, followed by warm applause. “It was a tribute to Marie-Garance, one she truly deserved!” Noël said. “All around us, the emotion was palpable.”

“This little girl was born anonymously, and that in itself is a miracle,” Noël continued. “I saw the pope’s blessing as a blessing for Marie-Garance’s biological parents as well. I pay tribute to them, because they chose to bring her into the world, despite all her disabilities. Through her, the pope’s blessing was for all courageous parents who face complicated, troubled lives, yet still decide to bring the children they carry into the world — even if other arms will eventually carry them, just as Marie-Garance was carried from hand to hand, all the way to the pope.”

Today, Clotilde and her husband, Nicolas, have 10 children, four of whom they have adopted — all their nonbiological children have disabilities. 

‘Blessed’ to be the parents of these children

“We are blessed to have been chosen to be the parents of these children,” she said. “They never cease to amaze us. My husband often talks about how fortunate he feels to have them, because they’ve taught him to be more patient — due to the slower pace they require of us — and more grounded in the value of each present moment. He often says that thanks to them, his life is deeply meaningful and overflowing with tenderness, rather than being swept up in a whirlwind of hectic activities.”

Marie, who has Down syndrome, was the first to be adopted by the family in 2013, when the Noëls already had six biological children. She was just a few months old at the time. Next came Marie-Garance. “She was so severely disabled that social services couldn’t even imagine placing her with an adoptive family,” Noël said. 

She was followed by a little boy, Frédéric Moïse. “He had a fairly severe physical disability that prevented him from feeding himself and walking normally,” Noël recounted. “But now he’s doing very well.” 

Finally, Pepa Teresa arrived. “She came to live with us at four and a half, straight from the hospital,” the mother explained. 

‘We decided to keep her with us forever’

“At first, it was simply a long-term foster placement, at the request of social services, who didn’t think they could place her for adoption. Then we decided to keep her with us forever. She is seven years old now.”

For Noël, this unusual journey she has shared with her husband is a “vocation within a vocation,” which first manifested as “her desire to learn more about adoption.” 

“I had to find out more, because this desire was eating away at me so much,” she said. “I then discovered that only children with disabilities were eligible for adoption. And there were many.”

“Before I got married, I had thought about becoming a nun,” Noël explained about her life vocation search. “And I had also considered going on humanitarian missions. But in the end, all those aspirations came together in this mission to serve these children, right within our own family, rather than on distant missions in other countries. This calling, then, was born within our calling to marriage, which comes first.”

“My husband accepted it,” she said, “and I thank him for that. His acceptance is a daily commitment, reflected in the practical care we must provide for our children every day — children who sometimes have long hospital stays, during which we spend a great deal of time with them whenever necessary.”

Her children inspire her with ‘sense of wonder’

Noël emphasized the “sense of wonder” her children inspire in her, which she sought to convey in the three books she has written to tell their story, rich with joyful anecdotes, with the account of their spiritual journey as parents, and the transformation of every member of their family brought about by the arrival of these children. 

The second of these books, “Risquer l’infini” (“Take a Chance on Infinity”), is dedicated to Marie-Garance’s story. Noël is now working on a fourth book.

For Noël, however, this sense of wonder goes hand in hand with a deep concern for the experiences of other parents of children with disabilities. Together with her husband, she founded the organization Tombée du Nid, or Fallen From the Nest in English, named after her first book, to support them.

 “I thought of all of them when I saw Marie-Garance being blessed by the pope,” she said. “As for us, we have not endured anything. We have not suffered. We have not been physically wounded by the discovery of a disability. There is a great deal of suffering that we have not experienced.”

Noël said she was moved by the pope’s words in his homily, that day, in which he spoke of families “who face many difficulties in their daily lives and courageously persevere in their mission.” 

“He spoke of Christ carrying the weary or wounded sheep on his shoulders,” she said. “Many parents do suffer. Many mothers lead painful lives, for a variety of reasons. Marie-Garance’s blessing was also for all of them. It was like a breath of fresh air and a source of comfort for all those for whom life is hard. The pope is truly the guardian of our humanity. He brings light into our darkness.”

Caroline de Sury writes for OSV News from Paris.