Join Jesuit Refugee Service and the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network in Praying for Child Soldiers
To mark the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers on February 12, Jesuit Refugee Service and Entreculturas, a social outreach program of the Spanish Jesuits, joined Pope Francis to pray and mobilize for the end of the use of child soldiers, in collaboration with the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
More than 230 million children around the world live in areas affected by armed conflict. Although there is no accurate data on the total number of child soldiers, it is estimated that there are around 250,000. Child soldiers — some as young as 6 years old — are forced to fight and kill. They are also compelled to participate in espionage, support armed groups as informants, and engage in illicit activities such as drug production.
Prayer and supporting JRS and Entreculturas programs can help ensure that children do not spend their childhood on a battlefield. People are also encouraged to support Pope Francis' initiative by signing the related petition.
Below is The Pope's Video — a worldwide call to turn prayer into "concrete gestures" — from December 2016, in which the pope prays that the scandal of child soldiers may be eliminated.
Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Bernard J. Streicher, SJ, who died on August, 17, 2017, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 88 years old. May he rest in peace.
August 16, 2017 — The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is an unlikely place for a pilgrimage, but the author recently went there to visit the grave of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. The location formerly had been the novitiate for the Society of Jesus.
August 11, 2017 — Founded by Fr. Arnold Damen, SJ, in 1857, Chicago’s first Jesuit parish and second oldest church survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and a planned demolition.
July 19, 2017 — The World Union of Jesuit Alumni was held for the first time ever in North America at John Carroll University in Cleveland from June 28-July 2.
