The Pope Deemed the Problem of Evil Unanswerable!

At the Pope’s most crowded Mass, the leader of the world’s Catholics, on Sunday, January 18, six million worshippers gathered in the rainy city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Moments before the ceremony, Pope Francis, at the University of Manila, was confronted with a difficult question from a young Filipino girl who asked him:

“Why does God allow little girls to be forced into prostitution?” After hearing this question, the Pope embraced the girl, whose parents had abandoned her. Glyzelle Palomar, a twelve-year-old Filipino girl, asked the Pope with tearful eyes:

“Many children fall into drugs and prostitution. Why does God allow these things to happen to us? The children are not guilty.” The Pope, visibly moved, said: “This girl has raised a question for which there is no answer.” Weeping at the question, he said: “This is a great question for all of us: why must children suffer? Why?” Estimates indicate that in the country of one hundred million, the Philippines, there are about 1.2 million street children. A 2009 census indicates that 35 percent of the country’s children live below the poverty line. The theme of compassion for the poor was at the heart of the Pope’s trip to the Philippines.