Pope Francis received a long round of applause at a Vatican summit on Monday after announcing he intends to make children the theme of a new papal document.
Titled “Love Them and Protect Them,” the Feb. 3–4 summit with public- and private-sector leaders from around the world includes panels on the child’s right to resources, to education, to food and health care, to family, to free time, and to live free from violence.
“To give continuity to this commitment and promote it throughout the Church, I plan to prepare a letter, an exhortation dedicated to children,” Pope Francis said on Feb. 3 in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.
The pontiff participated in most of the first day of the summit, at which he gave an opening speech on the importance of protecting children at the margins of society, including those living in war zones, unaccompanied minors, and the unborn.
“The halls of the Apostolic Palace today have become an open observatory on the reality of childhood throughout the world, a childhood that is unfortunately often wounded, exploited, denied,” he said in his remarks at the closing of Day 1 of the summit.
“Your presence, your experience, and your compassion have given rise to an observatory and, above all, to a laboratory,” he added.
“In different thematic groups you have drawn up proposals for the protection of children’s rights, considering them not as numbers but as faces. All this gives glory to God, and to him we entrust it, that his Holy Spirit may make it fruitful and fertile.”
“Children look to us, children look to us to see how we send life forward,” the Holy Father continued.
Speakers at the two-day summit include Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and author and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck.
This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
