It is unacceptable that a child’s right to life and a dignified childhood should be sacrificed to “the idols” of power, profit, ideology and nationalistic self-interest, Pope Francis said yesterday. Source: CNS.
“A childhood denied is a silent scream condemning the wrongness of the economic system, the criminal nature of wars, the lack of adequate medical care and schooling,” he said in his address opening a summit at the Vatican on children’s rights yesterday.
“We are here today to say that we do not want this to become the new normal,” he said, and “we are all here together, to put children, their rights, their dreams and their demand for a future at the centre of our concern.”
About 50 people, including former US vice president Al Gore, attended the one-day world leaders’ summit titled, “Love them and protect them”. The invitees included Nobel Prize winners, government ministers and heads of state, leaders of international and nonprofit organisations, top Vatican officials and others.
Talks were divided into topics of concern including a child’s right to food, health care, education, a family, free time, and the right to live free from violence and exploitation.
The Pope opened the summit by urging everyone to listen to children – their hopes, dreams and fears – and “to build a better world for children, and consequently for everyone!”
“Listening to those children who today live in violence, exploitation or injustice serves to strengthen our ‘no’ to war, to the throwaway culture of waste and profit, in which everything is bought and sold without respect or care for life, especially when that life is small and defenceless,” he said.
“In the name of this throwaway mentality, in which the human being becomes all-powerful, unborn life is sacrificed through the murderous practice of abortion.
“Abortion suppresses the life of children and cuts off the source of hope for the whole of society.”
FULL STORY
Nothing is worth sacrificing the life of a child, Pope tells world leaders (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
