As part of the first day of the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton had a virtual meeting with Pope Francis.
Specifically, the Pope stressed the importance of three major current issues: war, environmental change and care for children. He emphasized the way forward required people working together for the common good.
POPE FRANCIS
We need a great and shared assumption of responsibility. No challenge is too great if we meet it starting with personal conversion, the personal conversion of each of us, the personal contribution that each of us can make to solve it and from an awareness of what it is that makes us part of one destiny.
Pope Francis used the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome as an example of the important work of caring for the most vulnerable. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, this hospital has helped treat more than 2,000 Ukrainian children who managed to flee with their parents.
POPE FRANCIS
It's time to face migration emergencies, remembering that we are not talking about numbers, but about people, men, women and children. When we talk about migration, let's think about the eyes of the children we've seen in the refugee camps.
There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children who cannot be cared for.
Earlier meetings of the Clinton Global Initiative also discussed how to address the long-term recovery and rebuilding for Ukraine and how to advance ocean conservation.
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