On Thursday July 25, Pope Francis blessed the flag of the Rio Olympic Games. After receiving the symbolic keys to the city alongside the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, the governor of the state, Sergio Cabral, and the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), Carlos Nuzman, the sovereign pontiff gave his blessing to the hundreds of faithful, many of them children, who had gathered in the gardens of the “Palacio da Cidade”. Previously, inside the Palacio, located in the Botafogo district and overlooked by the Dona Marta favela, the first to have been "pacified" by the authorities in 2008 in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, the Saint-father had shaken hands with several athletes.
— Published July 25, 2013
