Post-Covid, kids need to roam free — and be free to make a mess
In 2015, Pope Francis told a crowd of young people in Paraguay to go out into the world and “make a mess.” There is some dispute about whether he was speaking spiritually or literally. I think the fairest reading is that it was both. “Make a mess, but then also help to tidy it up. A mess which gives us a free heart, a mess which gives us solidarity, a mess which gives us hope,” Francis said to a cheering crowd.
In one way, you can understand why the South American Catholic kids cheered. It’s not every day that the living head of your church, and the first pope from your continent, all but tells you to go have a food fight so long as you help clean up after. As he noted in his remarks, “They wrote a speech for me to give you. But speeches are boring.”
It would be good if the pope would say similar words the next time he comes to the United States, because it’s a message parents here of all faiths, or no faith at all, really need to hear: Messy kids are OK.
