ROME — Pope Francis received a group of some 30 “Palestinian and Ukrainian children” in the Vatican this weekend, the Vatican reported.
The children came “predominantly from war zones,” mostly Palestine and Ukraine, and highlighted a new initiative of Pope Francis to engage children in the quest for peace, Vatican News said.
Some of the children visiting the pope were missing limbs but were “happy for once to be in a place where they can marvel at a beautiful building rather than live in fear of bombs,” the Vatican related.
The audience was arranged as part of World Children’s Day, a new annual festivity celebrated for the first time on Sunday with a special Mass for children held in Saint Peter’s Square.
Pope Francis (up) listens to a speech during a mass on World Children’s Day at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on May 26, 2024. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
In his message for the celebration, the pontiff urged the children to “pay attention to the stories of grown-ups” and not to forget all “those other children and young people who are already battling illness and hardship, in hospital or at home, and those who even now are being cruelly robbed of their childhood.”
In the first place, these include “children who are victims of war and violence,” Francis said, and those “forced to be soldiers or to flee as refugees.”
The pope also received some 50,000 children at Rome’s Olympic Stadium Saturday, to kick-off “the movement of girls and boys who want to build a world of peace” and to “take care of the environment around us.”