Pope Francis on Friday asked Italian
children to pray for their peers in Ukraine and Gaza, and
encouraged them to be "artisans of peace" as he met with
students and teachers of the Italian National Network of the
Schools of Peace to the Vatican, Vatican News reported.
More than 6000 Italian girls and boys connected with the Italian
National Network of Schools of Peace visited the Vatican on
Friday morning for a special encounter with Pope Francis.
During a lively speech in which he repeatedly called for
responses from the children, Vatican News said, Pope Francis
made a special appeal to remember children who afflicted by war
and conflict, especially the children of Ukraine "who have
forgotten how to smile", and for the children of Gaza,
"gunned-down" and suffering from hunger.
The Network of Schools of Peace was conceived after years of
work at promoting the permanent education for peace and human
rights in the curricula of all schools at every level. The
Network is committed to educating young people about peace,
justice, citizenship, human rights, and responsibility.
Pope Francis began his address to his youthful audience by
thanking them for their journey "full of ideas" that aim to
promote "a new vision of the world." He thanked them "for being
full of enthusiasm" and for their passionate and generous
commitment to working for a better future.
Looking ahead to next fall's Summit of the Future, hosted by the
UN In New York, the Pope said the children's contribution is
necessary to ensure that the resolutions made on paper become
"concrete and realized through paths and actions for change."
Referring to the Italian initiative "Transforming the Future:
For peace, with care," the Pope challenged the boys and girls to
be "protagonists, and not spectators of the future." This, he
said, requires networking, connections, and for people to be
able to work together in synergy and harmony.
The Pope warned that today's challenges are truly global, affect
everyone, and require "the courage and creativity of a
collective dream that animates an ongoing commitment to face
together the environmental, economic, political and social
crises that our planet is going through."
He said, "it is a dream that requires us to be awake, not
asleep," and insisted that such dreams are realized through
prayer, "that is, together with God, and not by our own
strength."
Pope Francis went on to highlight the two key words at the heart
of their commitment: "peace" and "care." These two ideas are
interconnected, he said, explaining that true peace is not just
the absence of violence but a "climate of goodwill, trust, and
love that can mature in a society founded on relationships of
care."
Addressing the young people with deep affection, the Holy Father
invited them to do their own part to foster peace in our world.
"In this time still marked by war, I ask you to be artisans of
peace," he said. "In a society still prisoner of a throwaway
culture, I ask you to be protagonists of inclusion; in a world
torn by global crises, I ask you to be builders of the future,
so that our common home may become a place of fraternity."
Finally, Pope Francis appealed to the children to oppose an
attitude of indifference with an attitude of caring, inviting
them to "always care about the fate of our planet and your
fellow human beings" and "about the future that opens before us,
so that it may truly be as God dreams it for all: a future of
peace and beauty for all humanity."
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