The street children of Manila have been failed by their families and rejected by society – but when Pope Francis paid a visit, they became overnight stars

When Pope Francis met Cardinal Luis Tagle to prepare for his trip to the Philippines in January he was given a very large postbag. It contained 1,000 letters and cards from rescued street children asking him to visit them at the Anak-Tnk Foundation, a Catholic charity in Manila. If he had rummaged through the bag he would have noticed that about half the letters were addressed to John Paul II (the pope left quite an impression when he visited Manila in 1995). With a bit of help with translation he would have realised that many were not requesting a visit to the orphanage, but thanking him for already agreeing to one.