Pope’s refugees grateful for new life in Rome

For Nour Essa, one of the Syrian refugees who flew out of Lesbos on Pope Francis’ plane last week, it was a choice tinged with shock, joy and sadness — and it had to be made immediately.

“They asked me ‘Are you ready to leave for Italy tomorrow? You will be on the same plane with the Pope. You must give me your answer now’,” Essa recalled as she sat on a schoolyard bench with her husband Hasan Zaheda and two-year-old son Riad.

“We were shocked,” the 30-year-old said in an interview as she and her husband prepared to start an Italian language class.