At noon today, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father received in audience children and young adults from Primary Schools from various parts of Italy, participants in a gathering sponsored by the Foundation known as Makers of Peace and by the Organizing Committee of Homonymous Foundation.
The Pope responded off the cuff to numerous questions posed by the children who were present. Following is a transcription of the dialogue that the Holy Father had with the children and young adults and the Holy Father's prepared speech.
Dear children, good morning!
Dear others, who are not children, good morning!
I have heard the questions that you have asked. I have written them here, the questions. There are 13 of them. You were very brave to ask these questions. I will speak, based on these questions that you have prepared.
Chiara asks: I fight, especially with my sister. Have you ever fought with your family?
This is a real question. I am tempted to ask this question: Raise your hands if you have never fought with a brother or with someone in your family, almost never! ... Everyone has done that! It is part of life, because I'm joking, can always be interpreted in another way and then there is a fight ... But in the end, what's important is to be at peace. Yes: we fight, but we should never go to sleep at the end of a day without making up, being at peace. Always keep this in mind. Sometimes I am right and another person is wrong, how can I say I'm sorry? I can't say I'm sorry but I can extend a gesture, and our friendship can continue. This is possible: don't let a fight continue into a new day. This is terrible! Don't ever finish a day without making up and being at peace. Even I have fought many times, even now ... I get a little angry but we always try to be at peace. Fighting is a human thing. What's important is that we don't remain angry, that afterward, we try to be at peace. Do you understand?
Second: I would like to recite a poem for the Pope. The title of the poem is 'Building peace'.
It is true; peace is built every day. It doesn’t mean that there are no wars. Sadly there will be wars ... We think that one day there won’t be wars, and then? Peace is built every day, so as not to fall into another war. Peace is not an industrial product: peace is a product of craftsmanship. It is built every day through our work, through our life, through our love, with our closeness, with our loving one another. Do you understand? Peace is built every day!
Third: Holiness, but don’t you get tired of being in the midst of so many people? Wouldn’t you like some peace?
Often I would like some peace, to rest a bit more. This is true. However, to be with people does not take away peace. Yes, if there is a din, a noise, if one moves ... but this doesn’t take away peace. What takes away peace is that we not love one another. This takes away peace! What takes peace away is jealousy, envy, avarice, to take others’ things: that takes peace away. But it is good to be with people, it does not take away peace! It tires us a bit because one gets tired, I’m not a young man ... but it doesn’t take away peace.
Fourth question from an Egyptian boy: Dear Pope, we are from poor countries and with wars. The school loves us. Why don’t powerful persons help the school?
Why don’t powerful persons help the school? The question can also be made a bit bigger: why don’t so many powerful persons want peace? Because they live on wars! The arms industry: this is serious! The powerful, some of the powerful, earn money through the production of arms and they sell arms to this country that is against that one, and then they sell them to the one that goes against this one. It is the industry of death! And they earn money. You know, cupidity does us so much harm: the desire to have more, more, more money. When we see that everything revolves around money - the economic system revolves around money and not around the person, around man, around woman, but around money - so much is sacrificed and wars are fought to defend money. And because of this, many people don’t want peace. More is earned with war! Money is earned, but lives are lost, culture is lost, education is lost, so many things are lost. It is because of this that they don’t want it. An elderly priest that I met some years ago said this: the devil enters through the pocket book, through cupidity. And because of this they don’t want peace!
Raphael, I was very moved by what you said. (He says it in Spanish). I was stricken. You asked your question in Spanish. You would like to know: Is there some reason why a child, without doing anything evil, can come into the world, be born, with the problems that I have had? What do you suggest I can do so that children like me will not suffer?
This question is one of the most difficult to answer. There is no answer! There was a great Russian writer, Dostoevsky, who asked the same question: why do children suffer? One can only raise one’s eyes to Heaven and wait for answers that are not to be found. There are no answers for this, Raphael. Instead, yes there are for the second part: What can I do so that a child won’t suffer or suffer less? Be close to him! Society seeks to have care centres, healing centres, also centres of palliative care so that children won’t suffer; develop the education of children with sicknesses. So much work must be done. I don’t like to say - for instance - that a child is disabled. No! This child has a different ability, a different ability! He is not disabled! We all have abilities, all of us! All have the capacity to give each other something, to do something. I have no answer to the first question, but yes to the second.
Dear Pope, is there a possibility of forgiveness for someone who has done bad things?
Listen to this well: God forgives everything! Understood? It is we who don’t know how to forgive. We are the ones who cannot find ways to forgive, many times out of incapacity or because - that girl who asked this question has her father in prison - it is much easier to fill the prisons than to help someone who has made a mistake in life to go forward. The easiest way is to say: Go to prison. And there is no forgiveness. And what does forgiveness mean? Have you fallen? Rise! I will help you to rise, to reinsert yourself in society. There is always forgiveness and we must learn to forgive, but like this: helping one who has made a mistake to be reinserted. There is a lovely song that mountain climbers sing. They say more or less this: In the art of climbing, victory does not lie in not falling, but in not remaining fallen. We all fall; we all make mistakes. However, our victory over ourselves and over others - for ourselves - is not to remain fallen and to help others not to remain fallen. And this is very difficult work, because it is easier to discard from society a person who has made a bad mistake and condemn him to death, shutting him in prison. The work must be always to reinsert, not to remain fallen.
This is a good question: And if a person doesn’t want to make peace with you, what will you do?
First of all, respect for the person’s freedom. If this person doesn’t want to talk with me, doesn’t want to make peace with me, he has within him, I don’t say hatred, but a sentiment against me ... Respect him! Pray, but never - never - seek revenge. Never! Respect. You don’t want to make peace with me, I have done everything possible to make peace, but I respect your choice. We must learn respect. In the craftsmanship of making peace, respect for persons is always, always in the first importance. Understood? Respect!
And a boy detained at Casal del Marmo asked this question: The answer for boys like me is often prison. Do you agree with this?
No, I don’t agree. I repeat what I said: it is help to rise again, to be reinserted, with education, with love, with closeness. But the solution of prison is the easiest thing to forget those who suffer! I will give you advice: when they tell you that this one is in prison, that that one is in prison, that the other is in prison, say to yourselves: I can also make the mistake that he made. We can all make the most awful mistakes! Never condemn! Always help people to rise again and to be reinserted in society.
Dear Pope, I am nine years old and I always hear talk of peace. But what is peace? Can you explain it to me? I take advantage to tell you that in September I’m going to Lourdes with UNITALSI. Why don’t you come and guide the train so we don’t arrive late?
You were good. Good! Peace is first of all that there be no wars, but also that there be joy, that there be friendship among all, that every day a step forward is taken for justice, so that there are not starving children, so that there are not sick children that do not have the possibility of being helped in their health. To do all this is to make peace. Peace is work; it isn’t being tranquil ... No, no! True peace means to work, so that all will have solutions to the problems, to the needs that they have in their land, in their homeland, in their family, in their society. This is how peace is made – as I said – it is craftsmanship.
Dear Pope, how can religion help us in life?
Religion helps us because it makes us walk in the presence of God; it helps us because it gives us the Commandments, the Beatitudes; it helps us especially – all religions do – because all have a commandment that is common – to love one’s neighbour. And this “loving of one’s neighbour helps us all for peace. It helps us all to make peace, to go forward in peace. It helps us all.
But according to you, Pope, one day we will all be equal?
This question can be answered in two ways: we are all equal -- all! -- but this truth is not recognized, this equality is not recognized, and therefore some are - let’s say the word, but between quotation marks - happier than others. But this isn’t a right! We all have the same rights! When this is not acknowledged, society is unjust. It doesn't function according to justice. And where there is no justice, there cannot be peace. Understood? Let’s say it together, let’s see if you are good, I would like to repeat it more than once ... Pay attention: Where there is no justice, there is no peace! All together!
(They repeat a few times: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!)
Look. Learn this well!
And the last question, the thirteenth: After this meeting, does something really change?
Always! When we do something together, something beautiful, something good, all of us change. All of us change something. And this does us good. To continue with this meeting does us good. It does us so much good! All of us, today, must leave this meeting somewhat changed: for better or for worse?
Children: For better!
The Pope: Did you say for worse?
Children: For better!
The Pope: Changed somewhat for better.
Dear boys and girls, thank you so much for your questions. They were good. Thank you so much and pray for me.
(Blessing)
The Pope: And work for peace! Understood?
Children: Yes!
The Pope: How was that other saying? Where there is no justice, there is no peace. How was it?
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
The Pope: Once again ...
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
The Pope: One last time ...
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
The Pope responded off the cuff to numerous questions posed by the children who were present. Following is a transcription of the dialogue that the Holy Father had with the children and young adults and the Holy Father's prepared speech.
Dialogue between the Holy Father, Pope Francis
and various children
Dear children, good morning!
Dear others, who are not children, good morning!
I have heard the questions that you have asked. I have written them here, the questions. There are 13 of them. You were very brave to ask these questions. I will speak, based on these questions that you have prepared.
Chiara asks: I fight, especially with my sister. Have you ever fought with your family?
This is a real question. I am tempted to ask this question: Raise your hands if you have never fought with a brother or with someone in your family, almost never! ... Everyone has done that! It is part of life, because I'm joking, can always be interpreted in another way and then there is a fight ... But in the end, what's important is to be at peace. Yes: we fight, but we should never go to sleep at the end of a day without making up, being at peace. Always keep this in mind. Sometimes I am right and another person is wrong, how can I say I'm sorry? I can't say I'm sorry but I can extend a gesture, and our friendship can continue. This is possible: don't let a fight continue into a new day. This is terrible! Don't ever finish a day without making up and being at peace. Even I have fought many times, even now ... I get a little angry but we always try to be at peace. Fighting is a human thing. What's important is that we don't remain angry, that afterward, we try to be at peace. Do you understand?
Second: I would like to recite a poem for the Pope. The title of the poem is 'Building peace'.
It is true; peace is built every day. It doesn’t mean that there are no wars. Sadly there will be wars ... We think that one day there won’t be wars, and then? Peace is built every day, so as not to fall into another war. Peace is not an industrial product: peace is a product of craftsmanship. It is built every day through our work, through our life, through our love, with our closeness, with our loving one another. Do you understand? Peace is built every day!
Third: Holiness, but don’t you get tired of being in the midst of so many people? Wouldn’t you like some peace?
Often I would like some peace, to rest a bit more. This is true. However, to be with people does not take away peace. Yes, if there is a din, a noise, if one moves ... but this doesn’t take away peace. What takes away peace is that we not love one another. This takes away peace! What takes peace away is jealousy, envy, avarice, to take others’ things: that takes peace away. But it is good to be with people, it does not take away peace! It tires us a bit because one gets tired, I’m not a young man ... but it doesn’t take away peace.
Fourth question from an Egyptian boy: Dear Pope, we are from poor countries and with wars. The school loves us. Why don’t powerful persons help the school?
Why don’t powerful persons help the school? The question can also be made a bit bigger: why don’t so many powerful persons want peace? Because they live on wars! The arms industry: this is serious! The powerful, some of the powerful, earn money through the production of arms and they sell arms to this country that is against that one, and then they sell them to the one that goes against this one. It is the industry of death! And they earn money. You know, cupidity does us so much harm: the desire to have more, more, more money. When we see that everything revolves around money - the economic system revolves around money and not around the person, around man, around woman, but around money - so much is sacrificed and wars are fought to defend money. And because of this, many people don’t want peace. More is earned with war! Money is earned, but lives are lost, culture is lost, education is lost, so many things are lost. It is because of this that they don’t want it. An elderly priest that I met some years ago said this: the devil enters through the pocket book, through cupidity. And because of this they don’t want peace!
Raphael, I was very moved by what you said. (He says it in Spanish). I was stricken. You asked your question in Spanish. You would like to know: Is there some reason why a child, without doing anything evil, can come into the world, be born, with the problems that I have had? What do you suggest I can do so that children like me will not suffer?
This question is one of the most difficult to answer. There is no answer! There was a great Russian writer, Dostoevsky, who asked the same question: why do children suffer? One can only raise one’s eyes to Heaven and wait for answers that are not to be found. There are no answers for this, Raphael. Instead, yes there are for the second part: What can I do so that a child won’t suffer or suffer less? Be close to him! Society seeks to have care centres, healing centres, also centres of palliative care so that children won’t suffer; develop the education of children with sicknesses. So much work must be done. I don’t like to say - for instance - that a child is disabled. No! This child has a different ability, a different ability! He is not disabled! We all have abilities, all of us! All have the capacity to give each other something, to do something. I have no answer to the first question, but yes to the second.
Dear Pope, is there a possibility of forgiveness for someone who has done bad things?
Listen to this well: God forgives everything! Understood? It is we who don’t know how to forgive. We are the ones who cannot find ways to forgive, many times out of incapacity or because - that girl who asked this question has her father in prison - it is much easier to fill the prisons than to help someone who has made a mistake in life to go forward. The easiest way is to say: Go to prison. And there is no forgiveness. And what does forgiveness mean? Have you fallen? Rise! I will help you to rise, to reinsert yourself in society. There is always forgiveness and we must learn to forgive, but like this: helping one who has made a mistake to be reinserted. There is a lovely song that mountain climbers sing. They say more or less this: In the art of climbing, victory does not lie in not falling, but in not remaining fallen. We all fall; we all make mistakes. However, our victory over ourselves and over others - for ourselves - is not to remain fallen and to help others not to remain fallen. And this is very difficult work, because it is easier to discard from society a person who has made a bad mistake and condemn him to death, shutting him in prison. The work must be always to reinsert, not to remain fallen.
This is a good question: And if a person doesn’t want to make peace with you, what will you do?
First of all, respect for the person’s freedom. If this person doesn’t want to talk with me, doesn’t want to make peace with me, he has within him, I don’t say hatred, but a sentiment against me ... Respect him! Pray, but never - never - seek revenge. Never! Respect. You don’t want to make peace with me, I have done everything possible to make peace, but I respect your choice. We must learn respect. In the craftsmanship of making peace, respect for persons is always, always in the first importance. Understood? Respect!
And a boy detained at Casal del Marmo asked this question: The answer for boys like me is often prison. Do you agree with this?
No, I don’t agree. I repeat what I said: it is help to rise again, to be reinserted, with education, with love, with closeness. But the solution of prison is the easiest thing to forget those who suffer! I will give you advice: when they tell you that this one is in prison, that that one is in prison, that the other is in prison, say to yourselves: I can also make the mistake that he made. We can all make the most awful mistakes! Never condemn! Always help people to rise again and to be reinserted in society.
Dear Pope, I am nine years old and I always hear talk of peace. But what is peace? Can you explain it to me? I take advantage to tell you that in September I’m going to Lourdes with UNITALSI. Why don’t you come and guide the train so we don’t arrive late?
You were good. Good! Peace is first of all that there be no wars, but also that there be joy, that there be friendship among all, that every day a step forward is taken for justice, so that there are not starving children, so that there are not sick children that do not have the possibility of being helped in their health. To do all this is to make peace. Peace is work; it isn’t being tranquil ... No, no! True peace means to work, so that all will have solutions to the problems, to the needs that they have in their land, in their homeland, in their family, in their society. This is how peace is made – as I said – it is craftsmanship.
Dear Pope, how can religion help us in life?
Religion helps us because it makes us walk in the presence of God; it helps us because it gives us the Commandments, the Beatitudes; it helps us especially – all religions do – because all have a commandment that is common – to love one’s neighbour. And this “loving of one’s neighbour helps us all for peace. It helps us all to make peace, to go forward in peace. It helps us all.
But according to you, Pope, one day we will all be equal?
This question can be answered in two ways: we are all equal -- all! -- but this truth is not recognized, this equality is not recognized, and therefore some are - let’s say the word, but between quotation marks - happier than others. But this isn’t a right! We all have the same rights! When this is not acknowledged, society is unjust. It doesn't function according to justice. And where there is no justice, there cannot be peace. Understood? Let’s say it together, let’s see if you are good, I would like to repeat it more than once ... Pay attention: Where there is no justice, there is no peace! All together!
(They repeat a few times: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!)
Look. Learn this well!
And the last question, the thirteenth: After this meeting, does something really change?
Always! When we do something together, something beautiful, something good, all of us change. All of us change something. And this does us good. To continue with this meeting does us good. It does us so much good! All of us, today, must leave this meeting somewhat changed: for better or for worse?
Children: For better!
The Pope: Did you say for worse?
Children: For better!
The Pope: Changed somewhat for better.
Dear boys and girls, thank you so much for your questions. They were good. Thank you so much and pray for me.
(Blessing)
The Pope: And work for peace! Understood?
Children: Yes!
The Pope: How was that other saying? Where there is no justice, there is no peace. How was it?
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
The Pope: Once again ...
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
The Pope: One last time ...
Children: Where there is no justice, there is no peace!
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