Ending a Vatican summit on the rights of children, Pope Francis announced he would publish a papal document dedicated to children. Source: Catholic Review.
He called Monday’s summit venue, in the frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace, a kind of “open observatory” in which speakers explored “the reality of childhood throughout the world, a childhood that is unfortunately often hurt, exploited, denied.”
Some 50 experts and leaders from around the world, who shared their experience and compassion, he said, also “elaborated proposals for the protection of children’s rights, considering them not as numbers, but as faces.”
“Children are watching us,” he said, “to see how we are going about living” in this world.
The Pope said he planned to prepare a papal document “to give continuity to this commitment and promote it throughout the Church”.
The Pope was given a standing ovation after his brief closing remarks.
The one-day world leaders’ summit, titled “Love them and protect them,” discussed several 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.
It was organised by the recently created Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children, headed by Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato.
The invitees included Nobel Prize winners, government ministers and heads of state, leaders of international and nonprofit organisations, top Vatican officials and other experts.
Former US vice president Al Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, praised Francis for highlighting “the spiritual crisis we face as stemming in part from the wilful blindness that prevents so many from seeing the way in which our economic system is driving us toward the exploitation of both people and the planet at the expense of our moral values and the future of children”.
FULL STORY
Pope will prepare papal document to help church promote children’s rights (By Carol Glatz, CNS via Catholic Review)
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Pope Francis announces he will write Apostolic Exhortation dedicated to children (Vatican News)
