Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - "With the children of Africa ... we encounter Jesus," is the theme of the Day of the Holy Childhood Association in Spain, which is celebrated January 24 in nearly every diocese in Spain. The National Secretariat of the HCA is taking the Spanish children on a long “journey” across five continents, ending in 2013. The tour began in 2009 with Asia. This year the focus is Africa, to meet Jesus in the company of African children. This is why the Day focuses on who and how are the children live in this continent, to be able to exchange experiences with them. The poster for the Day's campaign shows a young Jesus, confident and joyful, with a group of children of different races around Him, showing once again that God makes no exceptions of persons or races.
For the occasion, Archbishop Francisco Pérez González, Archbishop of Pamplona-Tudela and National Director of the PMS in Spain, has written a message to remember that children come together to promote a more just and peaceful society. "The Church has always recognized the need to take care of children in light of the various threats that exist. It is a social shame that 250,000 children die of hunger every week, that more than 300,000 children are recruited as child soldiers in different wars," said the Archbishop, and he continues: "The Holy Childhood Association wants to become a living and powerful expression that reaches the conscience of every human being ... The children of Africa, in this Holy Childhood Day 2010, must be our favored friends, and in them we should see the hope for a new humanity." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 22/01/2010)
