Francis met 7,000 children from the “Peace Factory” on May 11. Prison is not the solution for young people who get it wrong. “I get irate too but after an argument you need peace”.
They put a bracelet round his wrist and a “peace helmet” “because you are our top peace worker”. They welcome him by singing “We are the World” and bid farewell to him with songs and embraces. Today the Pope welcomed 7000 children from the “Peace Factory”. The Pope preferred to set aside his prepared speech and respond off the cuff, to each of the 13 questions put to him by children. The questions were to do with peace, war, prison and sickness. “Where there is no justice, there is no peace,” he asked children to repeat altogether, explaining that in the world there is no peace because the powerful make money from the arms industry.
The aim of the initiative promoted by psychologist Maria Rita Parsi, amongst others, is to mobilise institutions, media, church bodies, NGOs, workforces and political figures to build a world of peace “immediately and in the future”. Radical leader Emma Bonino was also present in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope had personally invited her over the telephone, when he called to inquire about her illness, as Bonino said herself in an interview with Radio Radicale, adding that the Pope had met her when she was still Foreign Minister of Italy.
An Egyptian child living in the suburbs of Rome (“Tor Pignattara loves you and is waiting for you”), said that like other children with immigrant parents, he came from villages where there is poverty and war. He asked the Pope why “powerful people don’t help schools”: “We can ask a bigger question,” the Pope answered: “Why do so many powerful people not want peace? Because they live off war, the arms industry is a serious matter! The powerful earn a living by producing and selling arms to countries: it is the industry of death, they make money from it. You know greed is really bad for us, our desire to have more, more money: and when we see that everything revolves around money, that the economic system revolves around money and not around people, around men and women, a great deal is sacrificed and people go to war to defend money. This is why so many people do not want peace: you profit more from war and money but you lose lives, culture, education, you lose so many things. An elderly priest I met some years ago, used to say: the devil enters through people’s wallets, through greed and this is why they do not want peace.”
“Dear Pope, I am 9 years old and I constantly hear people talking about peace, what is peace?” asked a wheelchair-bound child, adding that he is going to Lourdes with UNITALSI and suggesting that Pope Francis should drive the train so he gets there on time: “You were great!” the Pope answered. “Peace means above all, no more wars but it also means joy, friendship among all, taking steps toward justice every day, taking steps to ensure there are no starving and sick who do not have the means to obtain health assistance. Doing all this is peace. Peace takes effort, it isn’t about being relaxed. We need to work in order to ensure that everyone has a solution to the problems and needs of their land, their country, their family and their society: this is how you make home-made peace.” Peace is not an industrial product, peace is a home-made product, it is created day by day with our work, our life, our love, our closeness, our care. Peace is build every day.” Francis then asked the children to say together: “Where there is no justice, there is no peace”.
Prison was another subject the Pope touched on. A young male inmate from Rome’s Casal del Marmo prison sent the Pope the following question: “The answer for boys like me is often prison, do you agree with this?” “No,” Francis replied, “I do not agree”: what you need is “help in picking yourself back up, reintegration through education, love and closeness. The prison solution is the easiest way to forget about those who suffer. Let me give you a piece of advice,” Francis told children: “When they tell you that that person there is in prison, tell yourselves this: I could also make the same mistakes he or she did. All of us are capable of making the most terrible mistakes, we must never condemn but always help others to pick themselves up and reintegrate themselves in society.” One young girl whose father is in prison, asked the Pope whether “there is a possibility for forgiveness for those who have done bad things,” the Pope replied: “Listen well: God forgives everything. It is we who do not know how to forgive. It is we who are unable to find ways to forgive, often because we are incapable or because it is easier to fill up prisons than to help those who made mistakes in their life to move on. The easiest route is going prison, without forgiveness. And what does forgiveness mean? You have fallen, I will help you pick yourself up and reintegrate yourself in society. There is a lovely song that the Italian Alpine troops sing: in the art of rising up, victory does not lie in not falling, but in getting back up. All of us fall, all of us make mistakes, but our victory over ourselves and others is in getting back up after a fall and helping others to do so. This is a very tough thing, it is easier to throw someone who has made a terrible mistake out of society, handing them a death sentence by sentencing them to life imprisonment. Efforts need to focus on reintegrating and getting back on our feet.”
Among the many subjects discussed, was illness in children. This is what Francis had to say to Rafael, a little Latin American boy with a heart condition: “Rafael, I was moved by what you said”. Then, answering two questions the child had put to him, the Pope added: “Is there a reason why a boy who has done nothing bad should come into the world with so many problems as he has? This is one of the hardest questions for one to answer: there is no answer. A great Russian writer, Dostoevskij, asked the same question: why do children suffer? One can only look att he sky and wait for answers that cannot be found.” What can I do to reduce a child’s suffering? “Be close to them. Society tries to set up care centres healing centres, paliative care centres; it tries to facilitate the education of children living with illnesses. I personally don’t like saying that a child is disabled,” the Pope said. “No, he or she has different abilities, he or she is not disabled, all of us have abilities. Everyone, everyone has the ability to give us something, to do something.”
Other questions were more personal: “I often argue with my sister. Have you ever got into arguments with your family?” “Raise your hands, how many of you have argued with a sibling or a family member: never? All of us have!” Francis answered. “It’s part of life, because I want to play this game, the other person wants to play another game, then we fight… but in the end the important thing is to make peace. We fight but don’t let the day end without making up.” I have also had many arguments, I still get a bit irate now, but I always try to make peace together.” “And if someone does not want to make peace with you, what do you do?” another little girl asked. “First of all I respect the freedom of that person,” Francis answered. “If a person does not want to speak to me, doesn’t want to make up, they have inside them, I wouldn’t say hatred, but something against me, I must respect them: pray and never take revenge.” Wouldn’t you want to be more at peace? another child asked. I would often like to have some peace, to rest more, it is true: but being with people does not take peace away from you. What takes away peace is not loving each other, jealousy, envy, avarice, taking things away from others: this takes away peace. But being with people is wonderful. It is a little bit tiring - I’m not young any more - but it doesn’t take away peace.”
