Leo XIV shares the details of his childhood as Monaguillo and the faith received from his mother

Pope Leo XIV met Thursday with the children who participate in the Vatican Summer Camp. In a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere, he shared with them memories of his childhood, responding with closeness and tenderness to the questions of the little ones.

One of the children, with the innocence of his age, asked him if when he was a child he went to Mass and what he liked to do. The Pope, with a smile, replied: “Of course. He was going to Mass with mom and dad,” and also said that since the age of six he was a sinus in the parish. ”

He added that his mother woke him up every morning to go to Mass before school: “He always woke us up and said: ‘Are we going to Mass?'”

“Serving at Mass was something that I liked very much, because since childhood they taught me that Jesus is always close, that he is the best friend, and that the Mass was a way to meet him, even before doing the first communion,” said the Pontiff.

Faced with the more than 600 children gathered in the Paul VI classroom, including 300 from Ukraine welcomed by Cáritas Italia, the Pope recalled that he had to learn Latin to follow the Mass.

However, he stressed that the most important thing was not the language of the celebration, but “the experience of meeting other children who also served in Mass, friendship, and that closeness with Jesus in the Church.” And he concluded confessing that, in his free time, he enjoyed the same as any other child: play.

Another little one asked below how to welcome who is different. “What a good question! Another applause also for him,” exclaimed the Holy Father.

By especially addressing Ukrainian children – who are “suffering a lot because of the war” – he stressed that it is “very important to live the experience of the encounter, to meet the other, respect each other, and learn to be friends with each other.”

Despite the differences, he encouraged children to “respect each other” and “to live an encounter with respect for the other, to build bridges, to build friendship, to recognize that we can all be friends, brothers, sisters, and that we can walk together and move on.”

He also warned that, sometimes, “a special effort is required,” but insisted that “we must learn to respect each other, namely that you can live the encounter and live as friends all.”

Asked about the war, especially that of Ukraine, he said that “also being small, we can all learn to be builders of peace and friendship, not to war, in battle, never promote hatred.”

“There are many little things, also for you, that sometimes you look and say: ‘I like those shoes, I don’t have them, so I look bad at the other person’ or ‘I feel envy’, something that makes me feel a little bad in my heart,” he told the children.

In changing, he explained that Jesus “calls us to learn to be all friends, all brothers, sisters. And living that experience – we are Italian, American, Ukrainians, from the country where we come from – we are all sons and daughters of God.”

“Since childhood we can learn to be bridge builders, look for opportunities to help the other. And also you, the little ones, you can start looking for those occasions, those opportunities. Being peace promoters, friendship promoters, love among all,” the Pope asked for children.

Finally, he encouraged the boys to shout in Ukrainian the word “welcome”, in a tender gesture of receiving children who suffer the pain of war for more than three years.