Global aid experts strengthen outreach and advocacy efforts assisting children

Catholic leaders, religious congregations, humanitarian organizations, and child-protection experts from around the world meet in Rome to strengthen the Church’s response to the escalating world crises facing children.

A daycare center for Ukrainian Refugee Children recently opened in Bucharest (ANSA)

Catholic leaders and child-protection experts from around the world have concluded a global meeting aimed at strengthening the Church’s response to the growing crises affecting children. The three-day meeting in Rome, entitled 'From Crisis to Care: Catholic Action for Children,' brought together 70 participants from 19 countries from 2-5 February, followed by three international webinars held over the past three months. Members of the organizing committee met with Pope Leo XIV in a private audience on Thursday, 5 February.

The initiative was launched in response to Pope Francis’s call to safeguard the rights and dignity of children amid what he has described as a global “poly-crisis” marked by conflict, displacement, poverty, and social breakdown. Participants engaged in three international webinars between November 2025 and January 2026, followed by the Rome gathering. Discussions were rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, the Church’s synodal vision, and Pope Leo XIV’s 2026 Message for the World Day of the Sick, which highlights compassion expressed through relationships and collective responsibility.

The process builds on momentum from the International Summit on Children’s Rights, convened by Pope Francis in February 2025 at the Vatican, which issued a global call to action to protect the world’s most vulnerable children. Participants reflected on stark realities, including children killed in armed conflicts, migrant children disappearing along dangerous routes, and millions of minors lacking access to healthcare, legal identity, or protection from exploitation and violence.

Sister Niluka Perrera, Coordinator of Catholic Care for Children International and co-president of the organizing committed told Vatican News that deepening effective collaboration to strengthen outreach and advocacy marked a key goal, saying 'we have been discussing on how best we can find the collaborative pathway, deepen our commitment towards this great mission, and which is very much important at this time because we see that there are many crises now facing children9;s rights.'

Organizers highlighted the scale of the crisis facing children worldwide. An estimated 123.2 million people were displaced in 2024–2025, including millions of children, while 1.6 billion children are exposed to violent discipline and tens of millions to sexual violence. At the same time, funding instability has weakened essential services, eroding the family, community, and institutional supports children need to thrive. Catholic institutions, often serving as frontline providers of care, are facing shrinking resources as demand grows.

Msgr. Robert Vitillo, also a co-president of the organizing committee and senior advisor at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, spoke to Vatican News and underscored the 'tremendous impact' these crises are having on children today. He noted how more and more children and families do not have access to education, basic healthcare, or to the vaccines that will prevent them from getting preventable diseases. 'These are the situations that are being faced, and the Church is there out in the front lines, so we need to find the ways not only to keep up those services and to have the resources to be able to do that, but also to let people in the world know about these problems.'

Co-sponsored by several Vatican offices and international religious leadership groups, the initiative adopted a synodal approach centered on listening, shared responsibility, and coordinated action. Among them, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), the Union of Superiors General (USG), clergy, religious congregations, and lay experts all contributed to the discussions and deliberations.

Participants agreed on the need for a “whole-child, whole-environment” framework that integrates family care, community support, and public policy. The process is expected to culminate in a public Catholic action plan aimed at helping ensure that every child can grow up in safe, stable, and nurturing family environments supported by coherent systems of care.

Vatican News
Source: vaticannews.va/en