Speaking to Irarica, who gave a testimony before his speech, he said she was brave to share that sometimes she feels very hurt, and misses her father and mother.
"You told me; 'I hope my message may be a light of hope,'" the Pope referenced. "But let me tell you something. Your life, your words, and the lives of all of you, are a light of hope."
He said a wonderful witness "is offered by all of you young people who have travelled this road, who found love in this home and now are able to shape your own future! You demonstrate to all of us the enormous potential of each person. For these boys and girls, you are the best example to follow, a sign of hope that they will be able to do the same. We all need good role models: children need to look to the future and have positive role models."
"Everything that you young people can do, like coming here to be with them, to play and spend time together, is important," Pope Francis said. "Be for them, as the Little Prince says: the little stars that light up the night," referring to the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry character for whom the children's home is named.
The Pope went on to note how the children who came from indigenous communities may have been witness to the destruction of their home, saying: "today those woodlands have been laid waste by the intoxication of a misguided notion of progress."
"Young people, do not be resigned to what is happening! Do not renounce the legacy you have received from your elders, or your lives and dreams."
He also encouraged them to study and to take advantage of the educational opportunities available to them.
"Listen to your elders; value their traditions; do not curb your curiosity. Get in touch with your roots, but at the same time open your eyes to new things; bring the old and the new together in your own way," he encouraged.
Society often needs correction and you, young people, can help greatly with this "by teaching us a way of life based on protection and care, not on the destruction of everything that stands in the way of our greed," he said.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.