Nothing is worth sacrificing the life of a child, pope tells world leaders

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- It is unacceptable that a child's right to life and a dignified childhood should be sacrificed to "the idols" of power, profit, ideology and nationalistic self-interest, Pope Francis told a group of world experts and leaders.

"A childhood denied is a silent scream condemning the wrongness of the economic system, the criminal nature of wars, the lack of adequate medical care and schooling," he said in his address opening a Feb. 3 summit at the Vatican on children's rights.

"We are here today to say that we do not want this to become the new normal," he said, and "we are all here together, to put children, their rights, their dreams and their demand for a future at the center of our concern."

About 50 guests from all over the world, including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, attended the one-day world leaders' summit titled, "Love them and protect them." The invitees included Nobel Prize winners, government ministers and heads of state, leaders of international and nonprofit organizations, top Vatican officials and other experts.

Talks were divided into topics of concern including a child's right to food, health care, education, a family, free time, and the right to live free from violence and exploitation.

The pope opened the summit by urging everyone to listen to children -- their hopes, dreams and fears -- and "to build a better world for children, and consequently for everyone!"

"I am confident that, by pooling your experience and expertise, you can open new avenues to assist and protect the children whose rights are daily trampled upon and ignored," he said.

"Listening to those children who today live in violence, exploitation or injustice serves to strengthen our 'no' to war, to the throwaway culture of waste and profit, in which everything is bought and sold without respect or care for life, especially when that life is small and defenseless," the pope said.

"In the name of this throwaway mentality, in which the human being becomes all-powerful, unborn life is sacrificed through the murderous practice of abortion," he said. "Abortion suppresses the life of children and cuts off the source of hope for the whole of society."

The pope highlighted the plight of children living in "limbo" because they were not registered at birth and of "undocumented" children at the border of the United States, "those first victims of that exodus of despair and hope made by the thousands of people coming from the south toward the United States of America."

"What we have tragically seen almost every day in recent times, namely children dying beneath bombs, sacrificed to the idols of power, ideology and nationalistic interests, is unacceptable," he said. "In truth, nothing is worth the life of a child. To kill children is to deny the future."

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister, followed up on the pope's condemnation of abortion in his talk.

"All children, even before birth, have the right to life and should be protected from discrimination on the grounds of sex or health," he said. "The choices that societies make regarding the protection of the child in its mother's womb have an impact on the way we see children, indicating the space and importance we are prepared to give them."

He also said, "Every child should have the right to a family, the right to be raised by a father and a mother," as "it is within the family that the rights and the well-being of children are best protected and promoted."

Parents also have the right to "educate their offspring according to their own religious beliefs," the archbishop added.

Pope Francis attended the early morning panels and was scheduled to return for the closing session. He was present for the speech of Jordan's Queen Rania, who told the gathering that "the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history."

"In theory, the consensus is clear: Every right for every child. Yet so many children around the world are excluded from this promise, particularly in war zones," she said. "Worse yet, people have grown desensitized to their pain."

The media blur horrific scenes of war "for our protection," she said, adding that it is absurd that a child's "lived reality is deemed too graphic for even adults to watch."

Some children are even denied the promise and protections of childhood, she said, when "they are demonized, aged up, portrayed as threats or simply dismissed as human shields."

"From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Myanmar and beyond, this un-childing creates chasms in our compassion. It stifles urgency in favor of complacency. It allows politicians to sidestep blame," she said.

Today, Queen Rania said, there is "a status quo that deems some children's suffering acceptable based on their name, faith or the land of their birth, where every child's fate depends on where they fall on some artificial line between 'our' children and 'theirs.'"

"Without equal application, global commitments ring hollow. Because if a right can be willfully denied, then it is not a right at all. It is a privilege for the lucky few," she said. "Every child has an equal claim to our protection and care. No exceptions, no exclusions, no preconditions."