This November 2, Pope Francis will celebrate All Souls’ Day Mass at the Laurentino Cemetery, a 52-acre plot in the south of Rome. As in 2018, he is expected to pay his respects at the “Garden of the Angels,” which houses the graves of miscarried children. This sorrow is particularly dear to Francis, who has repeatedly stressed that there are “no words” for the pain of parents who lose a child.
Inaugurated in 2012 in the Eternal City, the Garden of the Angels is a nearly 6,500-square-foot lawn lined with small white gravestones covered with flowers, stuffed animals, and toys. The graves of these children who never saw the light of day are guarded by two marble statues representing two angels, symbolizing innocence and purity.
Pope Francis already made a stop here in November 2018. Walking along the small path, he took the time to read the names of the deceased children with their unique dates of “birth” and death, and laid bouquets of white roses in front of their graves. He also met some of the bereaved parents, to whom he expressed his closeness.
The Pope’s prayer intention
His visit on Saturday, November 2, resonates particularly with the prayer intention Pope Francis has chosen for this month of November: He invites the faithful to intercede for “all parents who mourn the death of a son or daughter.”
“What can we say to parents who have lost a child? How can we console them? […] The pain is so great, that there’s no word” for it, he said sadly in his video message published for the occasion.
“And it’s not natural to outlive your child. The pain caused by this loss is especially intense,” he says.
Faced with their unspeakable suffering, Francis pleads for silent listening. “Words of encouragement are at times banal or sentimental; they’re not helpful. Spoken with the best intention, of course, they can end up aggravating the wound,” he warns in his message.
The bells of children not allowed to be born
This oft-expressed compassion of the head of the Catholic Church for children who die before birth also encompasses the reality of children whose lives have been cut short by abortion.
Ten years ago, on August 16, 2014, during one of his first international trips, to Korea, the Pope visited a memorial dedicated to these children in particular. Visibly moved, he stood for a few moments in silence before the simple white wooden crosses planted on the grass on Kkottonangnae hill, near Seoul.
On several occasions, notably in September 2020 and October 2021, Francis has blessed bells designed to be “the voice of those children who will not be born.” In promoting this initiative — which originated in Poland and then spread to other countries such as Ecuador and Ukraine — he has expressed his hopes that the sound of these bells would “awaken the consciences of legislators and all men of good will.”
In front of these imposing bells, the Pope also called for “a commitment to the defense of human life from conception to its natural end.”
He firmly defended the “sacred and inviolable” life of “every child who is conceived.”
And today we celebrate...