The World Children Day is a meeting that becomes a historic step for our Society.
The idea came up by chance from a dialogue with a child and from the uncommon chance of bringing his curiosity to the attention of the Holy Father.
- Dad, what is an encyclical?
- It is an important message on a specific topic for the whole world, written by the Holy Father.
- Can I read it then?
- Maybe it's early for you: you're just a child. It is written in a complex way, grow up a little and then you will read it.
- Dad, if it's so important and I'll read it when I grow up, then it will be too late.
At the root of the struggle for life there is a universally found sense of inferiority; the child who is not listened to inevitably considers himself inferior to the dominant adult figures.
The book on the ecological theme inspired by "Laudato si", "The children's encyclical", blossomed from that dialogue, with which I told, along with Father Enzo Fortunato, a symbolic handover between adults and children and the co-responsibilities that we all have.
Pope Francis wrote the preface and then on November 6, 2023 he met a delegation of 7,500 children from all over the world in the Sala Nervi in Rome.
This was the zero hour of what has now become the first World Children Day, announced by the Holy Father during the Angelus of 8 December 2023.
It is necessary to learn from the children. This change of perspective is perhaps the only way to try to change the status quo, at least on the most serious issues, such as the care of our common home and the wars that grip the world. Let us try to think, with true courage and without hypocrisy, about what we can do to leave him a legacy worthy of the name.
Thinking from the perspective of the children and with the children can help us change our point of view, it can help them become better adults than us: this is the meaning of the World Children Day!
