"My heart was beating very fast. But once I started singing I was fine," Gabriel said. "He said I sang well. We didn't say much but we were both feeling the same thing. We understood each other without speaking."

Gabriel, who has become something of a celebrity in his native Quebec, previously has sung with Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

"There weren't too many of us with dry eyes when he finished singing," said Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec. "It is very moving and symbolic to see a boy with his handicap sing out his life. He has extra strength in his heart wants to communicate the 'good news' through song."

Gabriel's mother, Sylvie, said it was her son's dream to sing for the pope.

"He has such strong faith. And when your faith is that strong you can reach any height, even the pope," she said.

The boy, who wore a rosary the pope gave him, sang "Je louerai l'Eternel" or "I will praise the Eternal."

By The Associated Press