Missionary Childhood Day, the hearts of children at all latitudes
On Vatican News, Sister Inês Paulo Albino, secretary general of the Pontifical Work of Missionary Childhood, recounts children’s initiatives on five continents
(by Paolo Affatato – Vatican City)
If in Northern Europe the little “star singers” go around countries and cities proposing Christmas carols to apartment buildings and communities collecting donations also by selling chocolate, in the other hemisphere, in Ivory Coast, in the diocese of Abengourou, children from two parishes involve their peers in courses to teach reading and writing to children from poor families, in rural areas, who do not attend schools because of poverty.
These, as well as other initiatives, are organized to mark World Missionary Children’s Day, traditionally celebrated on Jan. 6 but which, depending on location and context in different parts of the world, has ramifications at other times of the year as well.
A message of peace
All initiatives are linked by a red thread that is fully expressed in the universal motto Children Help Children, which tells in a few words the life and spirit of the Pontifical Work of Missionary Childhood, the organizer of the special Day.
In Switzerland and Germany, for example, children go from house to house during the Christmas season until Epiphany “bringing a message of peace and a blessing for the New Year, to raise awareness to support projects in favor of children in distress and poverty, all over the world,” explains Sister Inês Paulo Albino, secretary general of the Pontifical Work of Missionary Childhood, involved in the Dicastery for Evangelization.
The nun of the Institute of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, born in Guinea-Bissau, brought to the Vatican the flair and heart she had gained through years of work in the field of evangelization, catechesis and apostolate with children and youth, in her country and then in Italy.
The roots of the “Holy Childhood”
Sister Inês is keen to remind us of the roots of the work also called “Holy Childhood” because history gives meaning to the present: “In the mid-nineteenth century, a French bishop, Charles de Forbin-Janson, was struck by the news coming from French missionaries in China about the many children who were dying in poverty and without having received baptism.
Regretting that he could not personally leave as a missionary, he sought advice from Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Pontifical Work of the Propagation of the Faith. The exchange of ideas between the two was enlightening, and the bishop proposed involving French children so that, through prayer and material help, they could give support to their Chinese peers.”
Thus de Forbin-Janson went preaching to communities and little ones across the Alps “one Hail Mary a day, one penny a month” to cure a child and save his soul.
“With this initiative was sown the seed from which the Work would sprout. Years later the motto ‘children help children’ would be coined, which well summarizes the founder’s intuition and our charism,” recalls the African religious…