In the context in which we live, where life is being taken away, especially that of children, the International Summit on the Rights of the Child, entitled “Let us Love and Protect them”, begins today in Vatican City. In his inaugural address, Pope Francis said:
More than forty million children are displaced by conflict and some one hundred million are homeless. There is the drama of child slavery: some one hundred and sixty million children are victims of forced labor, trafficking, abuse and exploitation of all kinds, including forced marriages. […] The exaggerated individualism of developed countries is also deleterious for children. They are sometimes mistreated or even repressed by those who should be protecting and raising them.
Source: Vatican.va
He also denounced the death of minors as migrants at sea, and took the opportunity to condemn what he called “the murderous practice of abortion”, which ends life and “cuts off the source of hope for the whole of society”, because“to kill the little ones is to deny the future” .
In the midst of this context, the testimony of a mother from the diocese of Cienfuegos, Cuba, resounds strongly. Our Sisters lived in this place, and although they have already left, they continue to accompany us from afar. Today, the Vedruna Laity is still present there , and one of its missions is with people with disabilities. The mother who shares her testimony is part of the Christian community of this group:
The blessing of having a child or sibling with special needs can only be understood by these special beings who know how to love as Christ loves. They are able to give everything for love without expecting anything in return, but the happiness of that beautiful, brave and full of love being a person with special needs.
In our selfish eyes we see it as a heavy burden, but in the eyes of the parents and relatives of these children, they are artisans of love who teach them to love as no one imagines they could ever do.
Special people help us realize how imperfect we are, because they make us discover our selfishness, prejudices, superficialities and lack of faith.
Today there is a tendency to eliminate what does not conform to our selfish and petty judgment that leads us to decide whether a creature in a mother’s womb can live or not, based on simple suspicions that it is not normal or is not the way we want it to be.
None of us is perfect. No child is perfect. The real choice to reject or accept a child with special needs is between love and lovelessness; between courage and cowardice; between trust and fear. That is the choice in our personal lives. And that is the choice in our lives as a society.
It is time for us to open our hearts to Christ, who teaches us to love as only special babies know how to love. Let no life be eliminated in a mother’s womb because it is of special condition: LET US PROTECT LIFE!
We ask ourselves as defenders of life, “What do I do? What do we do as a community, as a group, as religious life in this context? What do we do in our space, in the mission we share, in our daily life?
Let us not fall asleep, let us allow ourselves to be questioned and let us act!
Isabel Miguélez, ccv