Pope Francis meets with approximately 7,000 children from around the world in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Nov. 6, 2023, at an event sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education dedicated to the theme “Let us learn from boys and girls.”. Credit: Vatican Media
He recalled in a particular way the children who are suffering from war, hunger, disease, climate disasters, poverty, or danger “because bad people even put weapons in their hands.”
“God loves us so much,” Francis said, “and it’s beautiful to be together, to communicate, to share, and to give. Do this all the time! Our Lady will help you.”
He asked the crowd of children if they pray for Mary’s intercession and encouraged them to continue to do so.
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Some children also asked the pope more personal questions, like what he dreams about at night and who his friends are.
Pope Francis embraces one of the approximately 7,000 children from around the world in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Nov. 6, 2023, in an event sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education dedicated to the theme “Let us learn from boys and girls.”. Credit: Vatican Media
Francis responded that he does not usually dream while he is sleeping and said his friends “are the people who live with me at home, they are friends. Then I have lots of friends outside, in some parishes, and then some cardinals too.”
“I have the grace to have friends and this is a grace of God,” he explained, adding that “a person who doesn’t have friends is a sad person.”
Asked how he spends his time during the day, Pope Francis said: “I wake up, I pray, and I work.”
“And there’s a lot of work here,” he noted, praising the dignity work brings and asking the children to repeat the phrases: “To work is health” and “Work gives dignity.”
A girl from the Philippines asked Francis what he does when he gets angry, to which he joked: “I don’t bite!”
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He then passed along a piece of advice he once received: to drink a glass of water before responding in anger to someone.
Pope Francis meets with young people ahead of his encounter with approximately 7,000 children from around the world in an event sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education dedicated to the theme “Let us learn from boys and girls” on Nov. 6, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Children from Brazil, Africa, Samoa, Haiti, and Ghana asked Pope Francis what children can do to save the earth, how to avoid waste, and if he is worried about the environment.
The pope said “we should all be worried for nature” and “people do not care for creation.”
Children can have an impact, he told the crowd, because “you are simple and you understand that to destroy the earth is to destroy ourselves.”
He asked them to repeat after him that “who destroys the earth, destroys us.”
