On his birthday, Pope Francis hosts pizza party for sick children

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2017 / 07:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis celebrated his 81st birthday with a pizza party for sick children Sunday, reflecting on the joy of children and the importance that they are raised with the faith.

“The joy of children is a treasure,” he said Dec. 17. “And we ought to do everything so that they continue to be joyous.”

“A joyous spirit is like good land that grows life well, with good fruit,” he said in his Vatican meeting with the children being treated by the Pediatric Dispensary of Santa Marta.

Pope Francis encouraged the children to speak with their grandparents. Grandparents “have memory, have roots, and it will be the grandparents that give roots to the children,” he said.

He asked that the children may not be “uprooted children, without the memory of a people, without the memory of the faith, without the memory of so many beautiful things that have made up history, without the memory of values.”

“And who will help children to do this? The grandparents,” said the Pope, adding that the elderly “love us very much.”

He exhorted parents to “teach them to talk with God.”

“May they learn to pray, to say what they feel in their heart,” Pope Francis said. “It is joy, to talk with the grandparents, with the elderly, and to talk with God.”

He then encouraged the children to eat the pizza, saying it will make them grow.

Before eating, he prayed the Hail Mary with the children.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*