An exhortation, a letter, a document dedicated to children. Pope Francis promises it at the end of the summit “We love them and protect them” dedicated to minors. A very intense day with dozens of high -level speakers from all over the world to talk about the rights of the little ones. Around 50 interventions on seven themes. To report abuse and try to draw, each starting from their own skillsa better future for new generations. The right to live without wars, with a family, the right to free time and be disconnected from the virtual world. The right to food, to school, to sport. Not to be abused, not to have to work, not to have to emigrate, not to have to defend themselves from the horrors that, every day, adults cause. It is Rania di Jordania that puts the first alarming data on the table: “One in six,” says “lives in conflict areas. Every day, dozens of them are killed or mutilated. They are deprived of all rights … of the right to life and security, but also to education, health, privacy and protection from abuses … ».
“In every newsletter or video labeled as” sensitive “on social media,” he continued, “they are there: British, and with the hands covering their ears after an air attack. So seriously burned that they are unrecognizable even by their parents. They are witnesses of horrors that are blurred by our screens for our protection ». Darkly because “their lived reality is considered too violent to be looked at, even by adults”. They are deprived of the right to childhood and “this crime is justified together with another: their total expulsion from the kingdom of childhood. They are demonized, made larger, described as threats or used as human shields. ” And, in particular on the children of Gaza, he added, “a disturbing study on their psychological state” reveals that “96% reported that they felt that their death was imminent. Almost half said he wanted to die. Not to become astronauts or firefighters, like other children – but they would like to be dead ».
“If a right is not global for all children it is not a right, but a privilege of a few,” he observed. «Whether they have lost two teeth in front or who have lost limbs due to war wounds, each child has the same right to our protection and our care. Without exception. Without exclusions. Without pre -contracts, “he concluded.
For its part Liliana Segre agreed in her intervention: “All children are sacred and should not be touched”. In his speech he stressed that “disengagement with indifference is very guilty. All children are a sacred thing and should not be touched for any reason. I testified the renunciation and revenge on the grudge. I have not forgotten and I continue to talk about how much violence humanity is capable. When you leave room for hatred human coexistence pollutes ». And then, remembering to be “the oldest woman to have the escort” and also to be “insulted”, she continued to reiterate that you must never answer with hatred. «If we only plays for some children, forgetting the others we would betray them; The recognition of where to fight all unjust violence is born from the Shoah ».
Pope Francis, after absent, only for some intervention in the morning he then attended all afternoon interventions. To each he expressed his own «Gratitude at the end of this meeting on children’s rights. Thanks to you the rooms of the Apostolic Palace today have become an “observatory” opened on the reality of childhood in the whole world, a childhood that unfortunately is often wounded, exploited, denied “underlined. And he concluded by recognizing that “your presence, your experience and your compassion have given rise to an observatory and above all to a” laboratory “: in various thematic groups you have developed proposals for the protection of children’s rights, considering them not as Numbers, but like faces. All this gives glory to God, and we entrust him, because his holy spirit makes him fruitful and fruitful ». Then he mentioned the words of Father Ibrahim Faltas, vicar of the Holy Land Custody (pictured)who had spoken shortly before: “Father Faltas said a word that I like so much: “Children look at us”. It was the title of a famous film. They look at us to see how we send life forward », he underlines. And he concludes ensuring that, also thanks “To the letter, to the entrance “, on the children he has in mind to prepare, he will try to” give continuity to this work and to promote it throughout the Church “.
