A media release from Durham Catholic District School Board on how little hands and hearts can remind us that Christ’s love spreads far and wide beyond Valentines Day.

Kindergarten students at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Brooklin have been spreading kindnessacross the globe by participating in a heart‑warming valentine card exchange. This initiative teaches young learners the power of kindness while building real‑world literacy, math, and geography skills.

Kindergarten families at the school were invited to participate in the card exchange initiative by sharing with their families and friends. The intention was to help spread kindness throughout the community. Littledid they know the initiative would extend far beyond local borders.

The project sparked enthusiastic participation with classrooms and families across all Canadian provinces, the United States, and beyond North America, including Australia, England, the Philippines, and more.Students are eagerly awaiting responses from other countries and territories as the exchange continues to grow.

Throughout this exchange, each student handmade a valentine card that included a fact about living in Ontario or Brooklin, a message of kindness, and sticker decorations.

They have also been sending thank‑you cards for the valentines they have received.

This global initiative blends fun with meaningful cross‑curricular learning. Students have gained hands‑on experience with letter writing, strengthening early literacy skills; math skills through learning about and counting stamps and postcards; and geography, as they scratch off new locations on a world map whenever a card arrives. They learned about postage, including sending and receiving national and international mail, and the difference between letters and parcels.

In Mrs. Patton’s kindergarten class, students enjoy spending the morning writing the cards andassembling their valentines while she assists students with addressing the envelopes.

“My kindergarten students have said they love making people happy. Their favourite part is sending heartfelt messages to thank the senders for participating in this Valentine’s Day initiative,” said Mrs. Patton. “This project teaches students valuable

literacy, math and geography skills, and also instills in them the importance of

celebrating joy, love, and community connection.”

The exchange reinforces the kindergarten classes’ values of always being kind. By reaching beyondtheir community, students learn that small, thoughtful actions can brighten someone’s day, whether they’re across town or across an ocean.

Taking up Christ’s message to let the little ones come unto Him, Pope Leo issued a Feb. 13 chirograph, or legal document for the Roman curia, to place authority for World Children’s Day under a dicastery and so elevate children to a matter of universal significance for the Church. 

Sharing the concern of my predecessor, Pope Francis, that the Church should pay attention to children, also through the establishment of a day dedicated to them, in line with the decision already taken to place the Pontifical Committee for World Children's Day within the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, and in order to further promote synergies and more effective work for the realization of this noble initiative, after having consulted appropriately,

I hereby decree the following:

§1. With the entry into force of this Chirograph, the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day, established by the Chirograph of 20 November 2024, is dissolved.

§2. The founding Chirograph and the related Statutes of the same Pontifical Committee are repealed. Any acts and regulations adopted to date by the Pontifical Committee that cease to have legal effect in canon law and civil law are also repealed.

§3. The President, Vice President, and other Members of the Pontifical Committee shall immediately cease their duties.

§4. The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life shall be competent for all matters hitherto assigned to the aforementioned Pontifical Committee.

§5. The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life shall undertake to settle the Committee’s outstanding accounts and submit a final liquidation balance sheet to the Secretariat for the Economy for approval and for any decision regarding the allocation of the remaining assets.

I decree that this Chirograph shall have immediate and stable force, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if of particular importance, and shall be promulgated by publication in L'Osservatore Romano and then published in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

From the Vatican, 12 February 2026