Pope Francis announced that he will canonise Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati next year and that the Vatican will host a world meeting on the rights of the child on February 3. Source: CNS.
The Pope will canonise Blessed Acutis on April 27, during the Jubilee for Adolescents in Rome and Blessed Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People in Rome, July 28-August 3.
The Pope made the announcement during his general audience in St Peter’s Square yesterday, which was World Children’s Day.
The annual celebration marks the date when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and when the assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
“On the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child and Adolescents that is celebrated today,” the Pope said, he wanted to announce holding a world meeting at the Vatican.
The World Leaders’ Summit on Children’s Rights will be dedicated to the theme of “Let’s love them and protect them,” and it will include experts and celebrities from different countries, the Pope said.
“It will be an occasion to pinpoint new paths directed at better assisting and protecting children still without rights who live in precarious conditions. They are exploited and abused and suffer the dramatic consequences of wars,” he said.
A small group of children involved in preparing for the February 3 meeting joined the Pope for a photograph after the announcement.
Pope Francis also established a new papal committee for World Children’s Day.
The aim of the world day, he said, was to make a concrete contribution toward carrying out “the Church’s commitment to children” by giving voice to children’s rights and making sure the Church’s pastoral activities have the same kind of care and attention toward children Jesus had.
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Pope says he’ll canonise Acutis, Frassati, host meeting on child’s rights (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
