A child who suffers is a cry that rises up to God

The November edition of the Pope Video has just been published, with the prayer intention that Pope Francis entrusts to the whole Church through the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network. During the month of November, the Holy Father invites people to pray for the children around the world who suffer. Their innocent pain cannot leave adults indifferent.

They aren’t numbers

When referring to the various situations of marginalization in which children live on the streets, are victims of war, or have no family, the Pope pauses to reflect particularly on the fact that «There are still millions of boys and girls who suffer and live in conditions very similar to slavery. They aren’t numbers: they are human beings with names, with a face of their own, with an identity that God has given them".

An abandoned child is our fault 

"Too often – states the Holy Father - we forget our responsibility and we close our eyes to the exploitation of these children who don’t have a right to play, to study, to dream. They don’t even enjoy the warmth of a family. Each marginalized child, abandoned by his or her family, without schooling, without healthcare, is a cry! A cry that rises up to God and shames the system that we adults have built. An abandoned child is our fault".

Care and healing of the most fragile children

Card. Kevin Farrell asserted that "every child comes into the world with a specific call, which destines him or her to contemplate the face of the Father who has longed for and loved them! By building a family environment around these children, [it will be possible] to 'guard' and proclaim this vocation to them, since the family is the source from which one can draw the awareness of being children of God, called by the vocation to love.  (...) What we are asked to do, as the Church, is to ensure that each child can accept the gift of his or her life and one day become in turn an adult capable of generating".

Fr. Frédéric Fornos S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, commented about this intention: “In the face of all the suffering children throughout the world  […] we must pray. ‘When we pray, we light a candle in the night, Francis said during the celebration of the Holy Mass on November 29, 2020. Praying makes us leave behind our indifference; prayer becomes action".