On the 5th of January, 2017, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Fr. Algirdas Toliatas, CO, blessed the sculpture ‘’Mommy,’’ which was specially commissioned to commemorate missing children.” Fr. Algirdas prayed for all the missing children who are alone and lost or maybe even in danger and asked that they be returned safely home. The sculpture had been previously blessed on the 7th of November, 2016, by Pope Francis, who said “I will pray for all of the missing and suffering children of the world.”
Delegates from the Prosecutor General’s office, the Men’s Crisis Centre, and the Vilnius Police Club for Children and Youth attended the consecration ceremony. The children from the Police Club dressed the sculpture with a hat and a scarf, which they had knitted themselves, in order to ‘warm’ the sculpture of a little girl.
The Missing Person’s Families Support Centre organised the blessing with the intention of drawing attention to the problem of missing children in Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2016 there were 2208 registered cases of missing children (1193 cases of missing girls and 1015 of missing boys). In most cases, the missing children have run away from their homes or from orphanages and are especially vulnerable to human trafficking or other criminal activities.
Through the commemorative sculpture, the Missing Person’s Families Support Centre’s director Natalja Kurčinskaja urges society to pay attention to the call of a small girl who is hugging herself as if she is scared and cold. The cry for mommy on her open lips should remind everyone to pay attention to their children, to listen to them, to hug them and understand them every day, not only when something bad happens.
Missing child? Call 116 000. Free helpline for relatives of missing children in all European countries. www.116000.lt
Dingusių žmonių šeimų paramos centras/ Missing Persons’ Families Support Centre,
Žalgirio g. 133,
LT – 08217, Vilnius,
Lietuva/ Lithuania.
Missing Person’s Families Support Centre consecrates sculpture ‘’Mommy..!’’ in Lithuania, 5th January, 2017. Natalja Kurčinskaja, Director.