Rome, Italy, Jun 5, 2017 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Last week the Order of Malta hosted diplomats and politicians from throughout Europe for a discussion on the effects of violent conflict on children.
Participants said the topic is increasingly urgent since children all over the world are growing up surrounded by war.
“It’s self-explanatory that the well-being of children is key for the future of humanity, and on the other hand the first victims of conflicts, of disasters, of any kind of turmoil, are the weakest in society, and these are women and children,” Order of Malta Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager told CNA.
Because of this, he said the order tries to concentrate the relief they give to “the weakest…especially, children.”
Providing educational opportunities and psychological care for children affected by violent conflict are among the top priorities “because the lack of education and the effect of traumas very often have very long-term effects, and sometimes they turn up only later and have a deteriorating effect on countries.”
The Grand Chancellor was one of several European leaders participating in a June 1 conference titled “Children Victims of Armed Violence” commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Lidice massacre in the Czech Republic.
Nazi troops stormed the village in 1942 on the order of Adolf Hitler in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking German official and the main architect of the Holocaust, a few months earlier. Nazi intelligence had erroneously linked the village to Heydrich’s assassins.
The men were rounded up and killed, and the women and 88 children of the village were gathered and sent to the Chelmno extermination camp, where they were gassed to death. Only a few children considered racially suitable for “Germanization” – the spreading of the German language and culture – survived, and were handed over to SS families.
To mark the anniversary, a Czech group came on pilgrimage to Rome last week. They met Pope Francis during his general audience May 31, and later had Mass with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who offered the liturgy for children who are victims of armed conflicts. The group then participated in the half-day conference Thursday, followed by a Mass said by Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague.
During the conference, Veronika Rymonova, a survivor of the Lidice massacre, shared her testimony. Although she was just five months at the time of the attack, Rymonova said the soldiers hit her on the face, leaving a scar on her forehead, and tore her earlobes.
She was one of the few children to survive, and said that despite the fact she has no memories of her village, she is proud of it because Lidice has become a “symbol against Nazism.”
“This unprecedented act of evil and hatred did not remain without a response,” she said, noting that after the massacre “a wave of solidarity arose all over the world,” with countries naming squares, streets, and towns after the village, and even sending donations to survivors.
“The fact that I am here today proves the fact that you are not indifferent to the fate of a small village in the heart of Europe, even 75 years after its massacre,” Rymonova said, voicing her hope that what happened in Lidice “would be a warning for the next generation” so that innocent lives “would never become a wasted sacrifice.”
In an opening address, Vaclav Kolaja, the Czech deputy foreign minister, told participants that while contemporary European youth have lived in relative peace, armed conflicts “remain part of everyday life in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”
Armed conflicts are “leaving behind a growing number of victims, devastated countries and wounded families,” he said, noting that the situation “is even worse for the millions of children growing in war or post-war countries.”
These children “become the passive witnesses and victims of human cruelties, or accept an active role in armed conflicts, becoming child soldiers,” he said. They also face rape and other forms of abuse.
Many times children in conflict areas will lack access to basic food, healthcare, shelter, and education, as well as access to a stable family life.
In his comments, Kolaja noted that if war is the only reality children experience growing up, “this naturally shapes the future of the world.”
As millions of migrants including unaccompanied minors, continue to pour into Europe, greater concern is mounting not only for how to ensure them safe passage, but also for how to help them integrate into their new societies.
In their recent “A child is a child” report, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the global number of migrant and refugee children who move alone has reached a record high. At least 300,000 unaccompanied minors and separated children were recorded in around 80 countries for 2015-2016, a massive jump from the 66,000 recorded for 2010-2011.
UNICEF Italy Team Leader for Refugee and Migrant Response, Gianfranco Rotigliano also spoke at the conference, telling participants that we are “losing generations” to armed conflicts.
“There is no sanctity anymore for hospitals,” he said, noting that they have often become targets, with numerous children among the casualties.
He also lamented the fact that children from warring countries often stop going to school, saying: “when children do not go to school, they are out of society, or they become the last part of society. They will not participate in the process of development in their own country and in their own society.”
Tomas Bocek, the Council of Europe’s Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees, noted that children who grow up with war generally suffer from anger and often drift into criminal activities.
Children also simply disappear, many times because of poor organization in refugee camps, or out of fear of deportation, he said, stressing the need to focus on systemic problems “so children do not fall through the net.”
Good and effective systems must be put into place, he said, noting that 1 in 3 asylum seekers in Europe is a child.
Because trafficking is such a huge risk, especially for unaccompanied minors, Bocek said the rapid identification of victims is essential so that they are accounted for before they disappear.
Stories from other panelists during the conference provided a shocking dose of reality in terms of what children go through.
One panelist recounted how in a visit to a warring country, she met a child who was waiting for the electricity to come back on after a bombing, not realizing that she had in fact lost her sight.
Other stories told of children who suffered from nosebleeds every time a bomb would go off, as well as the cases of children who, after coming home from school to see their homes destroyed and their family killed, wanted to commit suicide so they could be with their relatives.
In comments to CNA, Bocek said that of all the discussions taking place right now on global conflicts, the topic of how they affect children is one of the most important because “they are the most vulnerable ones, they are without protection, especially when they are on their own.”
One of the “most problematic areas” unaccompanied migrant children face is guardianship and obtaining basic information, he said, explaining that a plan of the Council for Europe provides for age-assessment, family reunification, and integration.
Integration, Bocek said, is key, and begins with learning the language, followed by education.
“They need to go to school. They not only need it, this is their basic right. So we really have to facilitate this, that all children who are coming are educated and can go to school.”
Responding to Pope Francis’ many appeals to European leaders to not only be generous in accepting the number of migrants they can reasonably welcome, but also to facilitate their integration, Bocek said he views the Roman Pontiff’s words as an encouragement for leaders.
“All these pushes, encouragements for our action,” he said, “will help to convince the leaders of European States, not only me, but in Europe, to really think twice and show more solidarity, because now this is really needed most.”
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Ugh.
“Condemned to the death penalty.”
Sounds like a pretty good description of abortion to me.
We read from the EU Charter: “Everyone has the right to life” and “No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.” But now, “the right to abortion.”
It’s not only about natural rights (as still affirmed by religion), but rather it’s also about abrogation of the non-demonstrable first principle of non-contradiction. In the lost ability to consistently carry two realities or ideas at once between one’s closed ears, we might be reminded how Pope John Paul II dealt simultaneously with the prudential judgment pertaining to capital punishment and with the most elementary human right to life…
In his “Gospel of Life,” of capital punishment John Paul II first found “such cases are very rare” (n. 56), and then, with this affirmation as a segue (!), he then affirmed that “‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value [!] when it refers to the innocent person [italics]. And all the more so in the case of weak and defenseless human beings, who find their ultimate defence against the arrogance and caprice of others only in the absolute binding force of God’s commandment” (n. 57).
As for the euphemism of “health care,” and as it has been said elsewhere, “Indeed, there is no ‘compelling argument’ not to slit anybody’s throat except for the Commandments given on Mount Sinai.”
Ironic and now tragic name from the Hebrew, this: “Emmanuel” [God is with us] Macron.
It boggles my mind why these people are so intent on making abortion a “right”. Do they not have a soul? How can snuffing out the life of a human being be called a “right”? It’s all so evil.
I have little doubt that Macron and The Pontiff Francis agree on the Macron agenda, whatever the topic.
Perhaps The Pontiff will award Macron with another papal medal like the one he gave to his esteemed abortion-promoter-friend Frau Ploumen of Belgium, right after Macron completes the Disney-fication of Notre Dame, which I’m sure The Pontiff eagerly awaits.
Liliane Ploumen was a Dutch politician. Emma Bonino an Italian politician and abortion promotor was also lauded by the Pope.
Renate Brauner an Austrian politician and abortion promotor was
lauded by Cardinal Schönborn in agreement with the Vatican.
In view of everything Mini-Macron believes in, that photo is particularly repugnant.
Were it an historically lesser Catholic nation than Catholicism’s eldest daughter, that a ‘right’ to abortion is promoted to the EU by French President Emmanuel Macron, Catholic by baptism regardless of agnosticism spells the secularization of Catholicism, not doctrinally rather practically. America’s Catholic pres, the greatest abortion implementer in our history.
His Holiness’ interface smile with Macron November at the Vatican increases angst, whether it’s approval of the issue or simply protocol friendliness. As referenced in weigel’s Marching Toward a Different Future Francis has given us a mixed message on abortion with effect leaning toward approval, largely based on sidelining the USCCB on Eucharistic cohesion as well as his friendly rapport with notorious abortion advocates.
This world is rapidly changing culturally based on a revision of Man and justice. An ideological anthropology that confers all the rights, and liberty possible, all the justice protection to the individual, to the exclusion of the birth of human life itself. A self adulation devouring itself.
Who will speak, will this staggering bloodied Church produce the likes of the great Alexandrian Fathers Athanasius and Cyril? Has the flame of faith flickered to ash? Will the great synodal journey, now expanded by Vatican request to all quarters of belief, faith, atheism and error thrust the estocada? God can do all things.
European Values: massacre 200.000 nationals every year… and import as many islamists. Vive La Republique…
Wasn’t it JP II who stated that when society fails to protect its most vulnerable it won’t survive?
Macron lauds the Charter of Fundamental Rights, “which enshrined, among other things, the abolition of the death penalty throughout the Union,” and hopes twenty years later to enshrine “the recognition of the right to abortion,” which is a death penalty for those who have never been able to commit any infraction that would warrant the death penalty. Wait, What?
very sad these politicians hopping over one another to be cool and kill kids…
Making murder legit so people can indulge in sexual license. More than a little disgusting. More disgusting that so many of those pushing such “rights” are supposed Catholics. An issue the current Pope prefers not to address, as he clearing give warm welcomes to the likes of Pelosi, Biden, Macron, and their ilk. “Who am I to judge” doesnt wash when you are the POPE and its ABSOLUTELY your job to judge and set standards for church members. If such people with a big public profile insist ion giving scandal, they should be excommunicated and shown the door. One is not OBLIGATED to be a member of the church, nor is it a civil right. Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth by pretending to be a practicing Catholic and then advocating for abortion. The Pope needs to start taking a genuine stand on church standards in ALL areas. Or maybe he should retire in favor of someone who CAN.
Macron stands there with his smiling face hanging out saying,
“Twenty years after the proclamation of our Charter of Fundamental Rights, … I hope that we will be able to update it, in particular to be more explicit about environmental protection or the recognition of the right to abortion,” he said.
Ya, sure, protect the environment, skid the babies———
Ya, well, he’s alive, got that? French President Emmanuel Macron is alive! Yup, he was allowed to live. He’s lucky the “update” didn’t occur sooner.
Now let’s hold hand with the Pope. Them’s is scarry eyes, I tell ye!
The extreme moral hypocrisy of Macron when condemning capital punishment and – in the same breath – lauding abortion.