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LONDON - The parents of a four-year-old girl snatched from a Portuguese holiday resort three weeks ago hope to meet Pope Benedict later this week, a spokesman for the family has said.
Since Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, her distraught parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both Catholics, have worked hard to raise public awareness of the case.
"We are certainly exploring the possibility of Gerry and Kate McCann visiting Rome to meet the Pope in the near future," Clarence Mitchell, the Foreign Office liaison officer for the family, told the BBC.
"The likelihood is the meeting would be on Wednesday. They hope to draw profound strength from any audience as well as helping to publicise the campaign to bring Madeleine home," he added.
Britain has been gripped by the McCann's tragedy and photographs of the blonde-haired child have rarely been off the front pages of newspapers since her abduction.
She was snatched in the evening from a holiday resort apartment as her parents ate at a restaurant about 100 metres away, in sight of the apartment.
The parents, both medics, said they would remain in Portugal until Madeleine was found.
Supporters of the family, who have flown out to Portugal to help them in the search, have distributed thousands of posters of the child and urged anyone with information to come forward.
The Vatican could not immediately confirm whether the McCann would have an audience with the Pope.
- REUTERS
