'To kill children is to deny the future,' says Pope Francis at Vatican summit

Pope Francis on Monday decried the deaths of children in global conflicts, telling a Vatican summit that "nothing is worth the life of a child."

Francis, who has been critical of both Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the ongoing violence of the Russia-Ukraine war, did not specify a conflict in his remarks.

"What we have tragically seen almost every day in recent times, namely children dying beneath bombs ... is unacceptable," said the pontiff. "To kill children is to deny the future."

The Vatican, shaken in recent decades by child sexual abuse scandals in countries across the world, invited a range of global leaders on Monday for a one-day conference to discuss children's rights.

Queen Rania of Jordan, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, and former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri were among the speakers.

Queen Rania arrives in the St. Damasus courtyard at The Vatican to attend the "Children Rights Summit" on Monday. AP

Francis ramped up his criticism of Israel's military campaign in Gaza in recent months, before the January ceasefire agreement. A few weeks ago, he called the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave "very serious and shameful.".

In Monday's speech, he also decried the number of children displaced by global conflicts, which the United Nations estimates at some 38 million.

"We are here today to say that we do not want this to become the new normal," said the pope. "We refuse to get used to it."

Pope Francis greets a child during a meeting with members of the Scandinavian Episcopal Conference at the Paul VI hall. Reuters

Francis, who has been sharply critical of US President Donald Trump's clampdown on immigration, also mentioned undocumented children at the US-Mexico border.

He said they were the "first victims of that exodus of despair and hope made by the thousands of people coming from the South towards the United States of America."

Reuters