Everything is ready for the first World Children’s Day which will take place in Rome on 25 and 26 May with the ‘claim’ “Behold, I make all things new”. A thousand Umbrian children will participate in the two-day event, an initiative that aims to shine a spotlight on the importance of the little ones within society, the protection of their rights and their well-being.
The special issue of the magazine San Francesco Patrono d’Italia, the May issue of which is coming out these days, is dedicated to World Children’s Day – which will take place between the Olympic Stadium and St. Peter’s Square. “We want a better future for children, not a world marked by poverty and war – underlines Father Enzo Fortunato, coordinator of the Day –. Adults need to be educated to make things change. As during the pandemic, even now the Pope reminds us that joy must be shared. We cannot be happy alone; together we can dream of a better world and commit ourselves to a more fraternal and environmentally friendly society. Change begins with small actions, such as greeting others, apologizing and saying thank you.”
Father Enzo’s words are followed by those of the lawyer Patrizia Schiarizza, founder and president of the Il Giardino Segreto Association, which offers legal and psychological assistance to children orphaned by feminicide and their families. “It may seem like a banal thing, said and heard several times – states Dr. Schiarizza –, but the value of a society is given by the way it treats children. […] This is how fundamental it is for the Holy Father to open a reflection, even from a strictly secular perspective: the importance of children and childhood is a natural principle, we do not need a written convention or a law that tells us this, because it has to do with being and remaining human.”
In the new issue of the magazine there is also an in-depth analysis on the elections in the world in 2024 by Raffaele Crocco and an account of the Franciscan vision of the common good in the book by Oreste Bazzichi and Fabio Reali entitled “The eclipse of subsidiarity and its recovery. Starting again from the roots of Franciscan thought”.
