12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar, who wept as she addressed the pontiff, said: "Many children get involved in drugs and prostitution. Why does God allow these things to happen to us? The children are not guilty of anything."
Pope Francis, clearly moved by the little girl's heartfelt plea, embraced the child and spoke candidly without the use of a pre-prepared speech.
Addressing the crowd, he said: "She is the only one of us who has put forward a question for which there is no answer and she was not able to express it in words, but rather in tears."
The pope, who was recently commended for his attitude towards breastfeeding, focuses much of his attention on the plight of poor and oppressed children.
Following Glyzelle's emotional outburst, the pope encouraged people to consider the marginalised children in society, saying: "I invite each one of you to ask yourselves, 'Have I learned how to weep, how to cry when I see a hungry child, a child on the street who uses drugs, a homeless child, an abandoned child, an abused child, a child that society uses as a 'slave'?"
Glyzelle has been abandoned as a child and became homeless before finding shelter with a church-organised shelter.
