Our Holy Father has directed all of us as Catholics to focus our efforts to take care of children:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis on the family, we now turn to children, who are a great gift for the Church and for our human family. I think of the many happy children I saw during my recent visit to Asia, but also of the countless children throughout our world who are living in poverty and need. A society can be judged by the way it treats its children. Within our families, children remind us that from our earliest years we are dependent on others. We see this in Jesus himself, who was born a child in Bethlehem. Children also remind us that we are always sons and daughters; rather than being in complete control of our lives, we never cease being radically dependent on others. They challenge us to see things with a simple, pure and trusting heart, to receive and to offer warmth and “tenderness”, and to laugh and cry freely in response to the world around us. Jesus urges us to become like children, since God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these (cf. Mt 18:3). Let us welcome and treasure our children, who bring so much life, joy and hope to the world. How sad and bleak would our world be without them! – Pope Francis
As Pope Francis points out, we are all God’s children, and we all have the responsibility, even if our own children and children’s children have grown up, to support, protect, encourage, and lift up the children in our world. We have an incredible opportunity to create and foster an environment here at Saint John for the children of the area. Our Life Center is being created to house programs for every age group and need. For the children here in particular, many of who may be underprivileged and do not have any structured afterschool activities, they are being driven right by our church to events at non-Catholic locations. It is a slippery slope we see time and again that those programs pull the children and eventually parents away from the Church. With the first active Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) being established here at Saint John, with social and sports programs, along with our after-school program, we have the vision and direction to joyously engage and excite the Holy Spirit in our children and create the future of the Catholic Church.
Please read the full text of his General Audience:
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/general-audience-on-the-gift-of-children–2