But before the music, families from different parts of the world spoke of their efforts to cope with great difficulties — persecution, illness, immigration, death. Their speeches were long. Long enough to become painful to listen to. I found myself making snide comments about how their talks should have been edited.

But Francis looked deeply and embracingly into the speakers’ eyes. And I realized that these are his people — the people of poverty and pain whose experience he has carried with him to the Vatican.

And I also realized that here was another boundary for me. That while I valued tzedakah, charity, it was one thing to give generously to a cause and yet another to intimately and publicly embrace those needing one’s help.

Then came the music. And then there was Francis, who threw away his prepared speech and talked passionately to the throng about the importance of family — and, as had Skorka, about the importance of love. He ended with some insights that spoke directly to this wife, mother of three daughters and grandmother of five.

“Families quarrel. Sometimes plates can fly and children can give you headaches. And I won’t speak about mothers-in law,” Francis said jokingly. But it is the families, he said, who are the “factory” of the future, if only they care for the children and the grandparents: “Children are the future; we put our hope in them. Grandparents are the living memory of the family; they pass on the faith.”

Read the article “Pope Francis Brought and Then Broke Down Barriers for Jews” on forward.com.