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US Bishops, American Jewish Committee provide resource to combat antisemitism

With antisemitic incidents on the rise in recent months, Bishops in the United States have teamed up with the American Jewish Committee to release “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition,” which seeks to stop the use of antisemitic language through deeper semantic understanding.

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UNRWA: Don’t stop our work for Palestinian refugees

Following a new Israeli law banning the UN Palestinian refugee agency from operating in occupied territories, UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler tells L’Osservatore Romano that the agency will continue its humanitarian efforts under its long-standing UN mandate.

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Pope Francis announces he will write Apostolic Exhortation dedicated to children

Closing the first-ever International Summit on Children’s Rights, the Pope stresses that children around the world “are watching us to see how we move forward in life.”

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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." 

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Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, center, greets former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, right, alongside Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, president of the Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children and one of the main organizers of the summit, before the opening of a world leaders’ summit on children’s rights at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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." 

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Pope Francis addresses participants during the opening of a world leaders' summit on children's rights at the Vatican Feb. 3, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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.  

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Pope Francis sits alongside Antonio Tajani, deputy prime minister of Italy, left, and Queen Rania of Jordan during the opening of a world leaders' summit on children's rights at the Vatican Feb. 3, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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."

Pope condemns violence against children, abortion

Pope condemns violence against children, abortion

Pope Francis opened a world leaders' summit on children's rights at the Vatican Feb. 3, 2025.

Consecrated persons called to be ‘witnesses of primacy of God’s love’

The Superior General of the Daughters of the Church has reminded consecrated men and women across the globe to be true witnesses of God’s love by being reflections of Christ and making Him visible to the world.

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Unbroken: Roman’s story of survival and strength

Nine-year-old Roman Oleksiv, who was severely burned in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in 2022, meets Pope Francis for the third time at the Vatican. Accompanied by representatives of "Alliance Unbroken Kids," an initiative supporting children affected by war, he is received by Pope Francis for the third time.

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Over 770 people dead in Eastern Congo clashes

Overcrowded hospitals in around DRC’s eastern city of Goma are struggling to respond to the needs of hundreds of wounded people amid continued fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels.

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Youth Ambassadors against Human Trafficking cross the Holy Doors

On Monday morning, a group of Youth Ambassadors associated with Talitha Kum became Jubilee Pilgrims of Hope, crossing the Holy Doors of three Papal Basilicas.

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US tariffs on imports set to rise drastically on Tuesday

Several countries have vowed to respond to tariffs the United States is set to impose on imports as of Tuesday.

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