We publish below the speech that the Holy Father Francis delivered yesterday afternoon, remotely connected, at the “Clinton Global Initiative 2023″:
Speech by the Holy Father
Thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me to the meeting. Thank you very much.
It is important to spread a culture of encounter, a culture of dialogue, a culture of listening and understanding.
It is necessary to share our views on how to contribute to the common good and how not to neglect the most vulnerable people, such as children, who, through the Bambino Gesù Foundation, are at the origin of our meeting.
We all know that we are experiencing an epochal change. Only together can we come out of it better. Only together can we heal the world from anonymity, globalisation and indifference.
You, Mr President, referred to the many challenges of today: climate change, humanitarian crises affecting migrants and refugees, childcare and many others.
To these I would add another, the wind of war blowing around the world, fuelling – in that spirit of war – what I have often called ‘the third world war in bits and pieces’, which now involves us all.
A great and common assumption of responsibility is needed. No challenge, no difficulty is too great if we face it starting from the personal conversion of each of us, from the contribution that each of us can make to overcome it and from the awareness that we are part of the same destiny. No challenge can be faced alone – by ourselves – but only together can we do it, as sisters and brothers, children of God.
That is why I always encourage all women and men of goodwill – and I want to do so here too – and I say to them: do not give up – do not give up in the face of difficulties; because difficulties are part of life. And the best way to deal with them is always to seek the common good, but never alone, always together.
Difficulties can bring out the best or the worst in us. Therein lies the challenge. We must fight selfishness, narcissism and division with generosity, humility and dialogue; unity is always better than conflict.
It is time to find the change towards peace, the change towards fraternity. It is time for an end to weapons, a return to dialogue and diplomacy. It is time for the designs of conquest and military aggression to cease. That is why I repeat: no to war – no to war.
It is time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe, before it is too late. That is why I have decided to write a new document, ten years after the Encyclical Laudato Si’.
Let us stop while there is time, please – let us stop while there is time.
It is also time to face migration emergencies together, remembering that we are not talking about numbers, but about people: men, women, and children. When we talk about migration, we think of the children we meet in refugee camps. It is time to think about the youngest, the children, their education, their care.
As you know, Mr President, this meeting originates from a small big project that is very close to my heart. It concerns children and their health.
In Italy, in Rome, near the Vatican, there is a very special hospital: the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital. In the world, it is known as the Pope’s Hospital, but for me, that is not why it is ‘unique’. It is obvious that our little big hospital cannot solve the problems of sick children all over the world; however, it wants to be a sign, a testimony of how it is possible – in the midst of so much effort – to combine great scientific research, aimed at treating children, with free hospitality for those in need. Science and hospitality, rarely meet in the same field.
Three years ago – in the middle of the Covid emergency – I baptized Siamese twins, Ervina and Prefina, joined at the head, which the doctors at the Bambino Gesù separated with a very complicated operation; they came from Central Africa, where they would probably have died, and now they are well; other pairs of twins and many children from poor countries have done the same. And all ‘pro bono’.
The hospital welcomes children. That is why here in the Vatican, on our heliport, helicopters often land with children brought in urgently from various parts of the world.
During these terrible months of war, the Bambino Gesù Hospital has treated more than two thousand young Ukrainian patients, who fled their country together with their parents and relatives.
In the health field, today more than ever, the first and most concrete form of charity is science: the ability to heal, which must be accessible to all. The Child Jesus is therefore a concrete sign of the Church’s charity and mercy.
There are incurable diseases, but there are no incurable children. Let it be clear: there are insurable diseases, but there are no incurable children.
This is the Bambino Gesù Hospital’s hallmark, this is their dream, which can also be yours. If you wish.
Thank you, President, thank you all and I wish you a good day. Thank you.
2 replies:
I am concerned about both, the children and climate change.
Please, regarding climate change, let us act before it is too late.
