After the reorganization started last summer, Pope Leo XIV takes a further step in the reorganization of World Children’s Day: with a chirograph published on 13 February, the Pontiff abolished the Pontifical Committee established to promote and organize the event wanted by his predecessor, definitively entrusting its competences and functions to Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
The decision follows the rescript of last August, with which the Committee had already been placed within the Dicastery, changing its legal nature from a body directly dependent on the Pope to a structure based on the Roman Curia. Now comes the formal suppression: Leo XIV abrogates the founding chirograph and the statute of the Committee, together with “any acts and regulations adopted so far”, which cease to have legal effects in both the canonical and civil systems.
The initiative, however, does not stop. On the contrary. From 25 to 27 September Rome will host the second edition of World Children’s Day, as announced by the Pontiff himself last November. In the chirograph, Leo An attention that remains central and which now finds a more stable position within the ordinary structures of the Holy See.
In fact, responsibility for organization and coordination passes entirely to the Dicastery led by Cardinal Kevin Farrell. “The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life is competent for all the matters so far envisaged under the said Pontifical Committee”, we read in the document. The prefect will define the Committee’s pending reports and present a final liquidation budget to the Secretariat for the Economy, for approval and decisions on the destination of any residual assets.
Furthermore, the president, father Enzo Fortunato, the vice president and the other members of the Committee.
The choice, explains Leo XIV, is motivated by the desire to “further encourage synergies and more effective work for the realization of this noble initiative”, after appropriate consultation.
In other words, the aim is to fully integrate the World Children’s Day in the ordinary pastoral path of the Church, avoiding duplication of structures and enhancing the experience of the Dicastery, already responsible for the organization of World Youth Days.
The first edition of World Children’s Day took place on 25 May 2024 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, in the presence of Pope Francis, with over 50 thousand children and young people from all over the world, including from contexts marked by poverty and war. An event of celebration, music and testimony, conceived in the wake of the WYD but with a specific focus on the little ones.
Now the responsibility passes organically to the Dicastery which deals with issues relating to the laity and the family, areas which also include the pastoral care of children. A sign of continuity in the path traced by Francesco, but also of rationalization of the structures, so that attention to children – the heart of the Gospel – remains a stable and shared priority for the whole Church.
