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The role of children in the Church
The word of St John Paul II
"Help the Church in her mission" (Address to 10,000 children of Armata Bianca, May 27, 1989)
Special Audience – May 27, 1989
On May 27, 1989, His Holiness Pope John Paul II addressed these words to the 10,000 children of the White Army gathered in the Nervi Hall:
Dearest children,
I am very happy to see you here in such large numbers and so joyful, and I greet you all with great affection.
You belong to that special association of prayer and apostolate called Armata Bianca, consecrated to the Most Holy Mary.
You have come from many cities across Italy, accompanied by several bishops, to whom I extend my fraternal greetings and heartfelt thanks—just as I thank all of you. My greetings also go to all those who organized this meeting, to your families, and to your leaders.
Above all, I thank the Lord, who has given you a great and simple faith—yet a convinced and profound one. For you too, Jesus said:
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:16)
You know the commitments of your association: to consecrate yourselves to God the Father and to Mary, committing yourselves to the daily recitation of the Rosary, with the particular intention of reparation and prayer for the conversion of many to the Christian message.
I encourage you to be faithful to this task, combining prayer with a witness of goodness.
The world needs your goodness and innocence to find the way back to Christ and to come out of so many situations of moral poverty.
Dearest children, proclaim the value of goodness, especially through the power of generosity and grace, through a deep and generous friendship with Jesus Christ.
Humanity today has an immense need for such a message—perhaps even a great longing, an urgent desire. Be faithful, then, to your commitment to prayer and your devotion to the Most Holy Mary. You well know that the message and invitation of the Virgin to the children of Fatima can be summed up in these words:
“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners.”
Today, I too would like to leave you a memory of this visit, and I do so with this recommendation:
Be faithful to your encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist, joyfully participating in the Sunday and feast day Mass. Jesus calls you to the day of celebration; He wants you close to His Sacrifice; He desires to be in communion with you.
From Jesus, learn to love your neighbor, to be generous with everyone, to seek out moments of solidarity with those who suffer, with those who need you.
Help the Church in her mission as Teacher of Truth, as Mother of Grace.
Help her also to spread the faith. You can do this by studying the Catechism, by learning His words, and by responding with love to the invitations of your bishops and priests who guide you.
Be strong apostles of Jesus for your friends, and often repeat for them the prayer taught to the children of Fatima:
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.”
May the Virgin Mary protect you, assist you, and make you steadfast in your commitment to the recitation of the Rosary.
May my Blessing, which I now affectionately impart, be of help to you, and I gladly extend it to your families and to your educators as well!
"The school of Blessed Virgin" (Homily in Fatima, May 13, 2000)
Homily given by the Pope on the occasion of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta
The homily delivered by the Pope on May 13, 2000, in Fatima, on the occasion of the beatification of the little shepherds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, clearly demonstrates the total alignment of our vision with that of the Supreme Pastor, including his references to the Book of Revelation and to the Woman clothed with the sun.
1. “Father, … to you I offer praise; for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children”(Mt 11: 25).
With these words, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus praises the heavenly Father for his designs; he knows that no one can come to him unless he is drawn by the Father (cf. Jn 6: 44); therefore he praises him for his plan and embraces it as a son: “Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Mt 11: 26). You were pleased to reveal the kingdom to the merest children.
According to the divine plan, “a woman clothed with the sun” (Rv 12: 1) came down from heaven to this earth to visit the privileged children of the Father. She speaks to them with a mother’s voice and heart: she asks them to offer themselves as victims of reparation, saying that she was ready to lead them safely to God. And behold, they see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly, so that they feel immersed in God just as – they explain – a person sees himself in a mirror. (…)
3. “Another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon” (Rv12: 3).
These words from the first reading of the Mass make us think of the great struggle between good and evil, showing how, when man puts God aside, he cannot achieve happiness, but ends up destroying himself.(…)
In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fátima to ask men and women “to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended”. It is a mother’s sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them”.
4. Little Jacinta felt and personally experienced Our Lady’s anguish, offering herself heroically as a victim for sinners. One day, when she and Francisco had already contracted the illness that forced them to bed, the Virgin Mary came to visit them at home, as the little one recounts: “Our Lady came to see us and said that soon she would come and take Francisco to heaven. And she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her yes”. (…)
5. “Father, to you I offer praise, for you have revealed these things to the merest children”. Today Jesus’ praise takes the solemn form of the beatification of the little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta. With this rite the Church wishes to put on the candelabrum these two candles which God lit to illumine humanity in its dark and anxious hours. (…)
6. My last words are for the children: dear boys and girls, (…) Our Lady needs you all to console Jesus, who is sad because of the bad things done to him; he needs your prayers and your sacrifices for sinners. Ask your parents and teachers to enrol you in the “school” of Our Lady, so that she can teach you to be like the little shepherds, who tried to do whatever she asked them. I tell you that “one makes more progress in a short time of submission and dependence on Mary than during entire years of personal initiatives, relying on oneself alone” (St Louis de Montfort, The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, n. 155). This was how the little shepherds became saints so quickly. A woman who gave hospitality to Jacinta in Lisbon, on hearing the very beautiful and wise advice that the little girl gave, asked who taught it to her. “It was Our Lady”, she replied. Devoting themselves with total generosity to the direction of such a good Teacher, Jacinta and Francisco soon reached the heights of perfection.
7.”Father, to you I offer praise, for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children”. Father, to you I offer praise for all your children, from the Virgin Mary, your humble Servant, to the little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta.
May the message of their lives live on for ever to light humanity’s way!
"We will have apostles among the children!" (Audience of August 17, 1994)
The Holy Father John Paul II repeatedly expressed his faith in the action of the Spirit in children:
“We will have apostles among the children”
(General Audience, August 17, 1994)
«(…) Jesus’ love and esteem for children are a light for the Church, which imitates its Founder. The Church cannot help but welcome children as He welcomed them (…). The presence of children in the Church is a gift for us adults as well (…). What the Church feels called to guard with zeal is the Christian formation of children, which is often not adequately ensured. (…)
From a psychological and pedagogical point of view, it is well known that children easily and willingly enter into prayer when encouraged to do so, as shown by the experience of many parents, educators, catechists, and friends. On these points, the responsibility of the family and the school must be constantly emphasized.
The Church urges parents and educators to ensure children’s formation in sacramental life, especially encouraging regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and participation in the Eucharistic celebration. (…)
In this catechesis addressed to the “apostolate of the laity,” I am spontaneously led to conclude with a striking expression of my predecessor, St. Pius X. When explaining the decision to lower the age for First Communion, he said: “There will be saints among children.”
And indeed, saints have come from among them. But today we can add: “There will be apostles among the children.”
Let us pray that this prediction, this hope, may be fulfilled more and more, just as the prophecy of St. Pius X has been.”
“Dear children, I entrust you with the prayer for peace”
(Letter to Children, December 13, 1994 – the first papal document addressed exclusively to children)
– «Dear children! (…)
How important the child is in the eyes of Jesus! One could even say that the Gospel is deeply permeated by the truth about the child. It could be read as “the Gospel of the child.”
What does Jesus mean when He says: “Unless you convert and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”?
Does He not place the child as a model even for adults?
In every child, there is something that must never be lacking in anyone who wishes to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (…)
For many children in the history of the Church, the Eucharist has been a source of spiritual—sometimes even heroic—strength! (…)
It is indeed true: Jesus and His Mother often choose children to entrust them with great missions for the life of the Church and humanity.
He awaits their prayer with great hope. How powerful the prayer of children is!
It becomes a model even for adults: to pray with simple and total trust is to pray as children know how to pray. (…)
To your prayer, dear little friends, I wish to entrust the problems of your own families and of all the families in the world.
But not only that: I have other intentions to recommend to you as well. The Pope counts greatly on your prayers.
We must pray together and pray much, so that humanity, made up of billions of human beings, may become more and more the family of God and may live in peace. (…)
I have decided to ask you, dear children and young people, to take on the responsibility of praying for peace.
You know well: love and harmony build peace; hatred and violence destroy it.
You instinctively flee from hatred and are drawn to love: this is why the Pope is certain that you will not turn down his request, but will join his prayer for peace in the world with the same fervor with which you pray for peace and harmony in your own families.”
The children of today, new evangelizers
(Angelus, Sunday, January 6, 2002)
-“(…) Today the Church entrusts the task of evangelization in a very special way to children. (…) The missionary support offered by children is of immense value for the many missionaries who, faithful to Christ’s command, work to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth. To each of these courageous evangelizers goes our heartfelt gratitude, accompanied by constant remembrance in prayer before the Lord.”
"Dear children, I entrust you with the prayer for peace" (Letter to Children, December 13, 1994)
The word of Benedict XVI
“I too rely on the prayers of children for my ministry – and rightly so – and on their active participation in the Church’s mission.” (ANGELUS, January 6, 2006)
“Dear children! (…)I see you as small collaborators in the Pope’s service to the Church and to the world: you support me with your prayers and also with your work to spread the Gospel“. (Letter to the children of the Missionary Childhood, September 3, 2007, read in Vienna, Austria, on September 10, 2007)
«(…) An example and encouragement is to be found in the shepherd children, who offered their whole lives to God and shared them fully with others for love of God. Our Lady helped them to open their hearts to universal love. Blessed Jacinta, in particular, proved tireless in sharing with the needy and in making sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Only with this fraternal and generous love will we succeed in building the civilization of love and peace.
We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: “Where is your brother Abel […] Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” (Gen 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end… In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 162). At a time when the human family was ready to sacrifice all that was most sacred on the altar of the petty and selfish interests of nations, races, ideologies, groups and individuals, our Blessed Mother came from heaven, offering to implant in the hearts of all those who trust in her the Love of God burning in her own heart. At that time it was only to three children, yet the example of their lives spread and multiplied, especially as a result of the travels of the Pilgrim Virgin, in countless groups throughout the world dedicated to the cause of fraternal solidarity». (Homily in Fatima, May 13, 2010)
«Dear friends, the Holy Family is the icon of the domestic Church, called to pray together. The family is the domestic Church and must be the first school of prayer. It is in the family that children, from the tenderest age, can learn to perceive the meaning of God, also thanks to the teaching and example of their parents: to live in an atmosphere marked by God’s presence. An authentically Christian education cannot dispense with the experience of prayer. If one does not learn how to pray in the family it will later be difficult to bridge this gap. And so I would like to address to you the invitation to pray together as a family at the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth and thereby really to become of one heart and soul, a true family.» (General Audience, December 28, 2011)
The word of Pope Francis
«At Fatima, the Virgin chose the innocent heart and simplicity of little Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, as custodians of her message. These children welcomed it worthily, so much so as to be recognized as trustworthy witnesses of the apparitions, and becoming role models of Christian life. With the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta, I wanted to propose to the entire Church their example of bonding with Christ and their evangelic witness, and I also wanted to urge the entire Church to take care of children. Their holiness is not the consequence of the apparitions, but of their faithfulness and the ardour with which they responded to the privilege of being able to see the Virgin Mary. After the encounter with the “Beautiful Lady” — as they called her —, they frequently recited the Rosary, they did penance and offered sacrifices to bring about the end of the War, and for the souls most in need of divine mercy. And today too, there is much need of prayer and penitence to implore the grace of conversion, to implore the end to the many wars there are throughout the world and that are growing ever larger, as well as an end to the absurd, large and small conflicts which disfigure the face of humanity. Let us be guided by the Light which comes from Fatima. May the Immaculate Heart of Mary always be our refuge, our consolation and the path that leads to Christ.» (Regina Coeli, May 14, 2017)
«[There] appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun”. So the seer of Patmos tells us in the Book of Revelation (12:1), adding that she was about to give birth to a son. Then, in the Gospel, we hear Jesus say to his disciple, “Here is your mother” (Jn 19:27). We have a Mother! “So beautiful a Lady”, as the seers of Fatima said to one another as they returned home on that blessed day of 13 May a hundred years ago. That evening, Jacinta could not restrain herself and told the secret to her mother: “Today I saw Our Lady”. They had seen the Mother of Heaven. Many others sought to share that vision, but… they did not see her. The Virgin Mother did not come here so that we could see her. We will have all eternity for that, provided, of course, that we go to heaven.
Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures. Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to hell. Mary came to remind us that God’s light dwells within us and protects us, for, as we heard in the first reading, “the child [of the woman] was snatched away and taken to God” (Rev 12:5). In Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady. She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her. According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”. (Homily May 13, 2017 – Fatima)
Testimony of His Excellency Bishop Pavel Hnilica
Monsignor Pavel Hnilica returned to Heaven on October 8, 2006, the anniversary of the act of entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, made in 2000—an act he had ardently desired.
The White Army owes much to Monsignor Hnilica, who followed it from its very beginnings with a father’s love and a mother’s tenderness.
To express our gratitude, we have no words more heartfelt than those he himself gave us in 1977, as a foreword to our book “Fatima and the Children.”
“When, already a bishop, I had to flee my homeland, Czechoslovakia, together with some seminarians, because we were persecuted for our faith, I was saved thanks to the innocence of children.
Now, dear children, I will tell you how it happened.
We found ourselves in a forest, with two local guides who were to lead us across the border. In our group there was also a mother with a six-year-old boy, Ivan, and a baby girl about five or six months old. Since the woman couldn’t carry both children, I offered to carry the boy.
We walked for three nights, hiding during the day because the area was under surveillance. We moved slowly, with the guides in front tapping the ground with a stick to check for wires that, if touched, would alert the border guards.
I always carried Ivan on my shoulders. I remember the last night: we had to cross the Morava River in an inflatable raft, three people at a time. Everyone wanted to go first, but I let the woman with the baby go first, then used every possible caress and promise to keep the boy from crying and screaming as he saw his mother drifting away. After two hours, we had all crossed and were already in Austria, though still in the Russian-occupied zone.
We were near the railway where we were supposed to take a train and felt almost safe. Suddenly, the guides stopped, puzzled: just beyond a small bridge we had to cross was a hut they hadn’t seen before. They said it might belong to some railway workers, but it could also be police. To be safe, they told us to cross the bridge very slowly.
As we were already on the bridge, we heard dogs barking, and suddenly four or five policemen came out of the hut with flashlights, shouting: “Stop! Stop!” Well, instead of stopping, we all started to run as fast as we could, the guides leading the way—everyone trying to save themselves. The woman had the hardest time fleeing, and I stayed close to her, still carrying the boy on my shoulders. The terrain was rough and made worse by melting snow. The woman fell several times, even lost a shoe, and at one point told me she just couldn’t go on. So I took the baby girl in my arms as well.
At that moment I remembered that I was also carrying the Blessed Sacrament. I had kept Jesus with me for two years, because in Czechoslovakia I never knew where I could celebrate Mass or distribute Communion, and I had special permission to carry Him with me. I then prayed to Jesus with a depth I had never felt before: “Jesus, You must save us, at least for the sake of these innocent children! Have mercy on this mother and her little ones!”
Indeed, the police caught three people from our group who were able to run—but not us, who had been left behind. We were saved.
When we found ourselves alone, as the policemen chased the others, we headed toward the lights of a village, about four kilometers away. I fell into a ditch filled with water, but managed to hold myself up on the banks with my elbows, keeping the baby girl dry.
Before reaching the village, the mother wanted to check on the baby, to see if she was sleeping—and noticed that I was carrying her upside down, with her face downward! I wasn’t a very good nanny… But the baby was sleeping peacefully—probably because, the night before, using my medical studies, I had given her a mild poppy infusion to help her sleep and keep her from crying… and she slept perfectly—even upside down!
We arrived at the village while it was still night and knocked on the door of the parish priest. He welcomed us generously, regardless of the danger he exposed himself to, since we were still in the Russian zone.
At first, he thought I was the father of the boy and offered us breakfast. I told him in Latin—since I didn’t yet speak German—that I was a priest, and expressed my wish to celebrate Mass before breakfast. So, still soaking wet, I celebrated the most moving Mass of my life after my First Mass.
I felt I had been delivered from a danger from which, humanly speaking, there was no escape. I felt the Lord’s goodness, His grace, His plan—and during that Mass, which lasted long despite the cold church and my wet clothes, I kept asking: “Lord, what do You want from me, if You have saved me so miraculously?” And I consecrated myself, as I did during my First Mass, completely to His service through the hands of the Virgin Mary. I want to spend my life in her service, especially for the same cause for which thousands of priests suffer in prison—and for the conversion of Russia, just as Our Lady of Fatima requested.
Even today, I truly attribute my freedom to the innocence of the two children I carried in my arms. Because of them, I was not imprisoned again—Jesus must have been moved by the situation of those innocent children.
And I firmly believe that just as I was in grave danger then, so today all humanity is in an even greater danger. Truly, I believe that Our Lady is pleading with Jesus: “You must save humanity, at least for the innocence of the children.”
Even if nothing else good remained in the world, Jesus must still respect the innocence of children. From the life of Jesus, we know He had a special love for children—that whether tired or not, He always had an open heart and open arms for them.
Therefore, dear children, today Our Lady truly makes use of you and of your innocence for the salvation of the world. What you must do, you will find in the message that the Virgin of Fatima gave to the children.
She did not speak to three bishops, like me—but to three children—because you children are more capable than bishops or adults. And if you understand and live the message of Fatima like the three little shepherds did, everyone—even the adults—will follow you.”
Monsignor Pavel Hnilica
Titulary Bishop of Rusado – Founder of “Pro Fratribus”
Rome, 1977