EUROPE/GERMANY - “Raise your voice!” The 2025 Star Singers Campaign for children’s rights

Aachen (Agenzia Fides) – The focus of the “Star Singers” campaign of the Pontifical Society of German Missionary Childhood (Aktion Dreikönigssingen) is on children's rights, and aims to emphasize that all people are beloved children of God and have a right to a life with dignity.
The campaign encourages children and young people to work together with their peers from all continents to ensure that their rights are recognized, guaranteed and protected.
In 1989, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Nevertheless, millions of children continue to suffer greatly: 250 million children, especially girls, do not go to school. 160 million children are forced to work, around half of them under exploitative conditions. One in four children worldwide is malnourished. More than 43 million children and young people are refugees and displaced persons fleeing their homes.
Children's rights must therefore continue to be strengthened and their implementation must be further promoted. Because "every human being has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally; this fundamental right cannot be denied by any country" (Pope Francis in the encyclical "Fratelli Tutti", 107).
"'Raise your voice! Star Singers for Children's Rights' is the motto of the upcoming campaign - and the Singers will bring this message to the people they visit all over Germany", explained Father Dirk Bingener, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies and of Missionary Childhood in Germany, illustrating the importance of the upcoming campaign theme. "The rights of children must be brought to people's attention again and again. Our partners in around 1,100 projects worldwide contribute every day to implementing and thus protecting children's rights," said Bingener.
Every year in the days before Epiphany the "Star Singers" dressed in their costumes of Magi, with their Star and their songs during Christmas time go around visiting German homes. The children from Catholic parishes in Germany carry the "C+M+ B" blessing ("Christus mansionem benedicat - Christ bless this house") to the families, collecting donations for other children their age who suffer throughout the world.
Since its beginning in 1959, the Star Singers Campaign has grown into the largest solidarity campaign in the world by children for children. Children's projects have been supported in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania and Eastern Europe.
The Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood uses the funds to support projects around the world in the fields of education, health, pastoral care, nutrition and social integration.
A delegation of Star Singers from the diocese of Freiburg will participate in the celebration with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday, January 1. A total of 21 other Star Singers from Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia and Romania will also be in the Vatican on New Year's Day.b(MS) (Agenzia Fides, 21/12/2024)

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