People and institutions can protect children by changing what they buy and what they invest in, Pope Francis said.
"Fighting exploitation, particularly child exploitation, is the high road to building a better future for all of society," the pope said Jan. 15, speaking about child exploitation during his audience for the second consecutive week.
Hundreds of thousands of children are subjected to dangerous working conditions, sex trafficking, pornography or forced marriages, the pope said, but "child abuse, in whatever form it may be, is a despicable and heinous act. It is a most serious violation of God's commandments."
Pope Francis urged all people to consider what they can do as individuals to respond to the societal problem of child exploitation.
"First of all, we must recognize that, if we want to eradicate child labor, we cannot be complicit in it," he said, explaining that people support child labor "when we buy products that employ child labor."
"How can I eat and dress myself knowing that behind that food or those clothes, there are exploited children who work instead of going to school?" he said. "The knowledge about what we buy is the first act in not being complicit. Look at where those products come from."
Likewise, institutions, including church bodies, have a "responsibility" to act against the exploitation of children "by shifting their investments to companies that do not use and do not allow child labor," he said.
After his main talk, a circus performed tricks for the entertainment of the pilgrims gathered in the St. Paul VI Audience Hall. Pope Francis joined the act by tossing a ball for a show dog to catch.
In his speech, the pope spoke about the many factors that lead to the exploitation of children, such as widespread poverty, lack of social support for families and rising unemployment and job insecurity.
As a result, children in cities, where social divides and moral degradation are most present, become active in dealing drugs and other illicit activities, he said, to the point of becoming "executioners of their peers."
Putting aside his prepared remarks, the pope recalled the case of a 5-year-old boy, Loan Danilo Peña, who disappeared in Argentina in June 2024. Police suspect that he was kidnapped for human trafficking purposes, possibly related to the harvesting of organs.
Pope Francis, returning to his text, said it is difficult for most people to recognize the social injustices that drive two children toward different paths, creating an "unacceptable human and social divide between those who can dream and those who must succumb."
"But Jesus wants us all free and happy; and if he loves every man and woman as his son and daughter, he loves the little ones with all the tenderness of his heart," he said. "Therefore, he asks us to stop and listen to the suffering of the voiceless."
After greeting the visitors in the audience hall, the pope prayed for peace in Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, Israel and all nations at war.
"And also, let us pray for the conversion of the hearts of arms manufacturers," he said, "because with their product they help to kill."
