BATH BEACH — When Julia Bruzzese met Pope Francis nearly a decade ago as a 12-year-old, she said it changed her life. Now, she wants to change the lives of others.
The meeting with Pope Francis took place on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sept. 24, 2015, during his arrival in New York. After the Holy Father disembarked from his plane, he greeted Bruzzese. He approached the shy girl and blessed her, gently touching her head with his hands.
“He came right over to me!” Bruzzese, now 21, said with a smile as she recalled the encounter with Pope Francis. “I still think back to that day. It brings me hope now.”
Then, as is the case now, Bruzzese was in her wheelchair. She was stricken with Lyme disease as a child and has needed a wheelchair for mobility since she was 11. Inspired by Pope Francis, Bruzzese is now an advocate for raising awareness of Lyme disease.
“It was just so amazing. I’m so lucky for that day, not just because I was able to meet him, but of the blessings he brought me,” she said. “And so that’s what I want — to give back. I think the pope brought me these blessings and these realizations of how I want to help people.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 476,000 people in the United States have Lyme disease, with 63,000 diagnosed in 2022.
Bruzzese has lobbied Congress to fund research to develop better treatments and has offered advice to affected people and families. She also plans to become a doctor and is in her third year in the pre-med program at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus.
All of this, despite the fact that the disease has left her legally blind and often renders her too exhausted to complete even the simplest tasks. Lyme disease has a wide variety of symptoms — everything from simple body aches to paralysis.
“I’m in a wheelchair. [Someone else] might just have a migraine,” she explained.
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Bruzzese was bitten by a tick at age 9. However, the symptoms, including fatigue and malaise, were gradual, and doctors were unable to pinpoint what was wrong. By the time she was 11, she had lost the use of her arms and legs.
While Bruzzese has since regained her upper-body strength, she does not have use of her legs and must use a wheelchair.
“Julia is just incredible because she’s a fighter. She doesn’t give up easily,” said her father, Enrico, who is also her primary caregiver. “She matured beyond her years at the age of 11, and that’s what disease and suffering does to you. I’m blessed to have Julia and the kind of strength that she has is just incredible.”
Prior to falling ill, Bruzzese was an active youngster. A student at St. Bernadette Catholic Academy in Dyker Heights, she was vice president of the student council and was involved in after-school activities like sports and dance.
To find herself in a wheelchair was embarrassing, she said, explaining that she “did not want to be remembered as the girl that got sick and was in a wheelchair.”
Sister Joan DiRienzo, principal of St. Bernadette Catholic Academy at the time, secured the tickets for Bruzzese and her family to go to the airport for Pope Francis’ arrival.
“I went to the tarmac that day. He was running late, so they told us, ‘You’re not going to be able to meet him. He has to get to a Mass,’ and he gets out of the plane and he came right to me\,” Bruzzese recalled. “I didn’t think I was going to meet him, so I was crying. I asked him for a miracle, and he blessed me.
“That moment was just like magic.”
