He urged them that their presence “be a source of hope for many” and that in their spirit of fraternity and welcome “they can recognize another face of humanity disfigured by wars, indifference and the discarding of the weakest.”
“Those children, those young people, those people also have dreams, but today, for so many reasons, they are broken dreams. “May they help them to revive their dreams, to believe in them and to realize them!” exclaimed the Pontiff.
He also noted that “children play, even under bombs, in countries at war. When we see photographs of these countries, there are children playing.”