Pope Francis has baptised 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel and told their mothers to have no qualms about breastfeeding there.
Pope Francis baptising a child in the Sistine chapel. Photo: AFP / Osservatore Romano
Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are some of the world's most celebrated works of art, but Francis told the mothers not to feel intimidated by the surroundings, and to feed the infants if they were hungry.
"Today the choir will sing but the most beautiful choir of all is the choir of the infants who will make a noise. Some will cry because they are not comfortable or because they are hungry," he said on Sunday.
In an interview last month he said mothers should not feel uncomfortable breastfeeding during his ceremonies.
Baptism is the sacrament at which infants or converts are initiated into the Christian faith. Francis poured water on the foreheads of the infants as part of the ritual.
He told the parents that the most important thing they can do is to transmit the faith of their forefathers to their children.
