Pope mulls child suffering, death
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) – Vatican City, November 27 – The suffering and death of children can be difficult to understand and accept, especially when people wrongly think that death means the end of all things, Pope Francis said Wednesday.
During his weekly general audience in a chilly St. Peter’s Square packed with about 50,000 followers, Francis praised the courage of followers who braved temperatures flirting with lows near zero to hear his words.
“I compliment you because you are brave, with this cold in the piazza, many compliments, eh?” the pope said with a smile, hands tucked into the sleeves of his thick white winter coat to keep them warm.
Before the general audience, Francis met a group of around 50 children who are suffering with Rett syndrome, a severe neurodevelopmental brain disorder, and their parents at the Vatican.
The Argentine pontiff greeted and caressed the children in what Vatican Radio described as a “simple, moving” encounter, before reciting an Ave Maria and giving a blessing.
Outdoors, a thick scarf wrapped around his throat as protection against the blustery north wind, the pope reflected on the mystery of death which he said carries with it the hope of resurrection.
However, without belief in God and the promise of everlasting life, death can be misunderstood and seem to be a nothing but a terrible tragedy, said the pope.
“If we allow ourselves to be taken in by this mistaken vision of death, we have no other choice than that of hiding death, of denying it, or of trivializing it, so that it won’t make us afraid,” he said.
The suffering and death of children seems particularly tragic and impossible to accept without a belief of life after death. The questions “Why do children suffer? Why do children die?” are particularly poignant, said the pope. “If it is understood as the end of everything, death scares, terrifies, becomes a threat that breaks every dream, every perspective, every relationship…This happens when we consider our life as a time locked between two poles: birth and death, when we do not believe in a horizon that goes beyond that of the present life, and when you live as if God did not exist”.
Such a vision of life is typical of atheism where existence seems to be no more than accidentally appear in the world “and walking towards nothingness,” said Francis.
However, most people feel a “powerful instinct” to believe that life does not end with death, but instead is the beginning of a new life, he said.
The best way to prepare for death and that new life is to remain close to Jesus through prayer, the sacraments but also in serving our fellow man, said the pope.