“Let us not forget to pray for peace”. Pope Francis concluded the first catechesis of the year 2025 with a renewed appeal for peace in the Paul VI Hall, during the traditional greetings to the Italian-speaking faithful at the end of the weekly Wednesday audience. “Let us not forget battered Ukraine. Let us not forget Nazareth, let us not forget Israel. Let us not forget all the countries at war”, the request of the Holy Father: “Let us pray for peace, without forgetting that war is always, always a defeat.” Moments earlier, Bergoglio attended a surprise performance by the CircAfrica circus troupe, including realistic-looking elephants. “The circus makes us laugh like children,” the Pope said to the troupe, greeting them individually.
“Children are a gift from God. Unfortunately, this gift is not always treated with respect”,
the Pope denounced in the opening lines of his catechesis devoted to children, notably to the scourge of child labour. “The Bible itself leads us through the streets of history where songs of joy resound, but also the cries of victims are raised”, Francis denounced. “Nowadays we want to turn our gaze towards Mars or towards virtual worlds, but we struggle to look in the eyes of a child who has been left at the margins and who is exploited or abused”, the Pope remarked:
“The century that generates artificial intelligence and plans multiplanetary existences has not yet reckoned with the scourge of humiliated, exploited, mortally wounded childhood.”
“The storm of the violence of Herod, who slaughters the infants of Bethlehem, erupts immediately even on the newborn Jesus”, Francis commented: “A dismal tragedy that repeats in other forms throughout history. And here, for Jesus and His parents, is the nightmare of becoming refugees in a foreign country, as still happens today to many people, to many children.”
“Today too, in particular, there are too many children forced to work”,
the Holy Father denounced: “a child who does not smile, a child who does not dream cannot know or nurture his or her talents”. The Pope went on to underline that
“In every part of the globe there are children who are exploited by an economy that does not respect life;
an economy that, in so doing, consumes our greatest store of hope and love. But children occupy a special place in God’s heart, and whoever harms a child will have to account to Him.” “Those who recognize themselves as children of God, and especially those who are sent to bring the glad tidings of the Gospel to others, cannot remain indifferent”, the final plea: “they cannot accept that our little sisters and brothers, instead of being loved and protected, are robbed of their childhood, of their dreams, victims of exploitation and marginalization. Let us ask the Lord to open our minds and hearts to care and tenderness, and for every boy and every girl to be able to grow in age, wisdom and grace, receiving and giving love.” “Let us pray for the grace to rediscover the precious place that each child occupies in the heart of God, in order to
not be complicit in the abuses
committed against them, but to firmly condemn them,” he appealed to the French-speaking pilgrims. “Protect life with love at every stage of development: from conception to natural death. Allow your children to grow in wisdom and grace,” Francis said addressing the Polish-speaking faithful. “Saint John Paul II urged us to build a civilisation of love and life,” he said: “Continue to take up this call of the Church as a primary responsibility.”
