THE POPE
AND CHILDREN

IF YOU PARTICIPATE TOGETHER IN THE SUNDAY LITURGY,
SUNDAY WILL BECOME MORE BEAUTIFUL,
THE WHOLE WEEK WILL BECOME MORE BEAUTIFUL

“Dear parents! I ask you to help your children to grow in faith, I ask you to accompany them on their journey towards First Communion, a journey which continues beyond that day, and to keep accompanying them as they make their way to Jesus and with Jesus. Please, go with your children to Church and take part in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration! You will see that this is not time lost; rather, it is the very thing that can keep your family truly united and centred.

Sunday becomes more beautiful, the whole week becomes more beautiful, when you go to Sunday Mass together.

And please, pray together at home too: at meals and before going to bed. Prayer does not only bring us nearer to God but also nearer to one another. It is a powerful source of peace and joy. Family life becomes more joyful and expansive whenever God is there and his closeness is experienced in prayer.

Dear catechists and teachers! I urge you to keep alive in the schools the search for God, for that God who in Jesus Christ has made himself visible to us. I know that in our pluralistic world it is no easy thing in schools to bring up the subject of faith. But it is hardly enough for our children and young people to learn technical knowledge and skills alone, and not the criteria that give knowledge and skill their direction and meaning. Encourage your students not only to raise questions about particular things - something good in itself - , but above all to ask about the why and the wherefore of life as a whole. Help them to realize that any answers that do not finally lead to God are insufficient.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Celebration of Vespers, Cathedral of Munich,
Sunday, 10 September of 2006)

CHILDREN ARE THE FAMILY’S GREATEST TREASURE
AND MOST PRECIOUS GOOD

“In Latin America, as in all other places, children have the right to be born and to be raised in a family founded on marriage, where parents are the first educators of the faith for their children in order for them to reach full human and spiritual maturity.

Children truly are the family's greatest treasure and most precious good. Consequently, everyone must be helped to become aware of the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion. In attacking human life in its very first stages, it is also an aggression against society itself. Politicians and legislators, therefore, as servants of the common good, are duty bound to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God's love.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Speech to the participants of the Meeting of Presidents
of Latin American Episcopal Commissions for Family and Life, 3 December 2005)

PARENTS ARE THE FIRST EVANGELIZERS OF CHILDREN,
STARTING FROM TEACHING THEM THEIR FIRST PRAYERS

“Today more than ever, the Christian family has a very noble mission that it cannot shirk: the transmission of the faith, which involves the gift of self to Jesus Christ who died and rose, and insertion into the Ecclesial Community. Parents are the first evangelizers of children, a precious gift from the Creator (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 50), and begin by teaching them to say their first prayers. In this way a moral universe is built up, rooted in the will of God, where the child grows in the human and Christian values that give life its full meaning.”

(Pope Benedict XVI to Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, Letter on the occasion of the
5th World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, 17 May 2005)

THE POPE LOVES YOU, HE HAS CONFIDENCE IN YOU,
AND ENTRUSTS TO YOU TODAY THE TASK
OF BEING FRIENDS AND WITNESSES OF JESUS

“(…) You have told me that this year your formation process is taking the way of beauty [bello] in the search for truth [vero]. You have therefore chosen a simple and effective slogan: "Bello, vero!". Christmas is the great mystery of the Truth and Beauty of God, who comes among us for the salvation of all.

The birth of Jesus is not a fairy tale: it is a story that really happened, occurring in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Faith enables us to recognize in that tiny Child, born of the Virgin Mary, the true Son of God who for love of us was made man. "The King of Heaven comes to a cold and frigid grotto", says the Christmas carol, "Tu scendi dalle stelle", known throughout the world.

In the face of the tiny Jesus we contemplate the face of God, who does not reveal himself in strength or power but in the defencelessness and frail condition of an infant. This "Divine Child", wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger with the maternal care of his Mother, Mary, reveals all the goodness and infinite beauty of God. He shows the fidelity and tenderness of the boundless love with which God surrounds each one of us.

This is why we celebrate Christmas, reliving the same experience as the shepherds of Bethlehem. Together with so many fathers and mothers who toil constantly every day, facing continuous sacrifices, let us celebrate with the little ones, the sick and the poor, because with the birth of Jesus, the Heavenly Father responded to the desire in our hearts for truth, forgiveness and peace. And he responded with such great love that we find it surprising: no one could ever have imagined it if Jesus had not revealed it to us!

The amazement that we feel in the face of the enchantment of Christmas is to a certain extent reflected in the wonder of every birth and invites us to recognize the Child Jesus in all children, who are the joy of the Church and the hope of the world. The newborn Child who comes into the world in Bethlehem is the same Jesus who walked on the roads of Galilee and gave his life for us on the Cross; it is the same Jesus who was raised up and, after his Ascension into Heaven, continues to guide his Church with the power of his Spirit. This is the beautiful and great truth of our Christian faith!

Dear children of A.C.R., the Pope loves you, he has confidence in you and today he entrusts to you the task of being friends and witnesses of Jesus, who came to Bethlehem among us. Is it not a beautiful thing to make him all the more known among your friends, in the city, in the parishes and in your families? The Church needs you to be close to all the children and boys and girls who live in Italy. Witness that Jesus takes nothing from your joy, but makes you more human, true and beautiful.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, To the children and youth of Italian Catholic Action,
21 December 2006)