ROME (AP) 鈥 Just before breaking the Ramadan fast on Sunday evening, Hasan Zaheda played basketball with his son in the tiny courtyard of the basement-level apartment on Rome鈥檚 outskirts where the refugee family is rebuilding their lives.
They have no pictures from their native Syria 鈥 they fled Damascus at the height of the civil war with only one change of clothes, diapers and milk for their toddler. But there is a framed photo of little Riad meeting Pope Francis, to Italy from almost a decade ago.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a gift from paradise,鈥 Zaheda said Sunday, chuckling. 鈥淧ope Francis, a gift from our God, that God sent us to save us.鈥
As the Zahedas began to observe , Francis, 88, entered his third week of not far away. The least they can do, the family said, is to be close to him in prayer night and day.
鈥淲e look for his health bulletin every day,鈥 said the mother, Nour Essa, 39, after recalling meeting the pontiff suddenly in Lesbos. 鈥淲hat shocked me the most is that the father of the church was a modest man, who didn鈥檛 have prejudices, open toward other ethnicities and religion.鈥
The family journeyed on the pope鈥檚 plane 鈥 one of the most visible moments of . The Zahedas remember how kindly Francis patted Riad鈥檚 head as he passed down the aisle to speak with journalists.
But 鈥渕iraculous鈥 as it appeared to them, it was only the beginning of a new life in Italy to which they鈥檙e still adjusting.
Essa, a biologist, and Zaheda, an architect who worked as a civil servant in Damascus, decided to leave Syria in 2015 after he was drafted into the military. They sold their house to pay for a smuggler, walking through the night trying not to make a sound in the desert and at one point riding for ten hours in different trucks.
After scrambling to get through ISIS-controlled territory, they made it into Turkey and then had three failed attempts to reach the Greek islands by boat before arriving in Lesbos in early 2016.
鈥淚 always thank God that my son was so small, and that he has no memory of all these things,鈥 Essa said as Riad watched a Syrian soap opera in the cramped living room with his grandfather, who fled about a year after them. On the walls, Hasan鈥檚 haunting paintings of white faces against swirling black and red tell of the parents鈥 all-too-vivid memories.
After more than one month in a Lesbos camp, the family was approached for an interview by a stranger 鈥 Daniela Pompei, the head of migration and integration for the Catholic charity Sant鈥橢gidio.
She had been tasked with finding families with appropriate paperwork that Francis could bring back to Rome with him, and asked them to make a decision on the spot. They accepted, and the charity, with Vatican funds, eventually brought more than 300 refugees from Greece and 150 from another .
Sant鈥橢gidio鈥檚 goal was to spare migrants longer journeys by sea across different routes in the Mediterranean, which have willing to 鈥渄ie for hope鈥 over the years, Pompei said.
But the real test has been integration, from processing their asylum cases to learning Italian to school and job placement. Initiatives like the pope鈥檚 make all the difference because they signal to the refugees that their new communities are willing to welcome them, despite faith differences.
鈥淭he pope has long appealed to open parishes, to welcome at least one family in each parish, to push us Catholics too to counter what he called, with a very strong term in Lampedusa, Pompei said.
In the characteristic Roman accent they鈥檝e acquired, the Zaheda parents told of their challenges 鈥 having to reenroll in university so their degrees can be recognized, helping their families come to Europe, taking care of their son.
Working or studying 12 hours a day, they rarely have time to socialize with other Syrian families and the migrants who comprise most of their neighbors in the modest brick-faced apartment buildings as well as most of Riad鈥檚 classmates.
His best friend is from Ecuador, and Riad plans to study Spanish in middle school. He鈥檚 joined a local basketball team, and pictures from the court line his bedroom, where a large Syrian flag hangs by his bunkbed. He likes to read The Little Prince in English, but his Arabic is tentative, even though he spends most afternoons with his grandfather, who loves to sketch local churches.
For Sunday鈥檚 iftar 鈥 the meal breaking the day鈥檚 fast 鈥 the family topped a little table with yogurt-and-chickpea tisiyeh salad and take-out pizza in typical Roman flavors like zucchini flowers and anchovies.
As Riad packed his backpack for the school week, his parents said their future hinges on the little boy 鈥 for whom they will likely stay in Italy, instead of joining relatives in France or returning to a Syria they probably couldn鈥檛 recognize.
鈥淚 always wish that he can build his future, that he can build a position as the son of an undocumented migrant who arrived in Italy and who wanted to leave his mark in a new country,鈥 Zaheda said.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
