QC students back Pope’s call for peace through paper cranes
A parish in Quezon City is showing its support for Pope Leo’s call for an end to the Middle East conflict by making 1,000 paper cranes.
On Tuesday, students from public and private schools gathered at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Project 8, Quezon City, to work on the project. The 1,000 paper cranes will be sent to the Pope to show their solidarity with his appeal for an end to the war in the Middle East.
According to parish priest Fr. Robert Reyes, the initiative was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was only two years old when the US dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945.
Sasaki would develop leukemia after several years and while in the hospital, she started making origami cranes after learning of the Japanese folklore that if someone made 1,000 of these—the equivalent of a crane’s life span—their wish would be granted. Even when she remained ill, Sasaki did not lose faith and continued folding paper cranes until her last moments.
Peace monument
After her death at age 12 in 1955, a Children’s Peace Monument showing a young girl lifting a large paper crane was erected at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with a plaque calling for peace worldwide.
Reyes said that they would be seeking an audience with the apostolic nuncio in order to bring their message to the Pope.
“I was frustrated. I kept praying for the war to stop. Then, I thought of Sadako and her paper cranes. Why can’t we have the children here make paper cranes?” Reyes added. “Let the children’s voices be heard.”
