Care and healing of the most fragile children

Working to build a world in which children are raised in a safe and loving family or within a community that supports them: this is the vision of Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI), an initiative that was created under the auspices of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), with the goal of supporting women religious throughout the world in promoting a family and community approach—rather than an institutional one—for the care of the most vulnerable young children.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, sent a greeting on the occasion of the launch of this global initiative, which was streamed online on 2 October: “The little ones you care for are especially vulnerable, often marked from an early age by profound physical, emotional, and relational wounds.” Cardinal Farrell continued: “In orphanages, as well as in other institutions, they have suffered separation from their parents and have been deprived of physical, moral, and spiritual closeness with those who gave them life; for this reason, they find themselves in a situation of particular fragility and need.”

In conclusion, the Prefect of the Dicastery encouraged the women religious of the UISG to find concrete ways to implement this initiative for the sake of these littlest ones: “With your specific charism within the Church, you have the extraordinary responsibility of expressing a solicitous presence to them, for giving them a family context in which they can feel nurtured in their human and Christian vocation.”