Pope denounces wars in the world and asks: Think of the children! King Charles III kicks Andrew out of Buckingham Palace over sex scandal

After a year of conflict and war, Pope Francis urged the world in his Christmas message to do more for peace. Impressed by the bloody conflict in the Ukraine, the head of the Catholics especially remembered the suffering children.

He recognizes in the face of the newborn Jesus in the manger “the faces of the children who yearn for peace in all parts of the world,” Francis said on Sunday from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Then he bestowed the Urbi et Orbi blessing on the city and the world.

The pope had already preached at Christmas Eve Mass that the weak and poor were “the greatest victims of human greed.” “I think in particular of the children who are devoured by war, poverty and injustice.”

After two years of Corona, the pontifex celebrated Christmas for the first time in a fully occupied St. Peter’s Basilica for about 7000 guests. On Sunday, St. Peter’s Square was filled with tens of thousands of worshipers for Francis’ Christmas message. Celebrations in the Holy Land were also reminiscent of the time before the pandemic.

Annual capitalism and war criticism

Francis lamented that “While the Prince of Peace is given to us, the winds of war continue to blow icy upon mankind.” As in almost all of the pope’s speeches since the end of February, Ukraine also played an important role on the first holiday. “May our eyes embrace the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who are living this Christmas in the dark, in the cold or far from their homes – as a result of the destruction caused by ten months of war,” Francis said.

At Christmas, the Pope had said: “People who are hungry for power and money in the world consume even their neighbors, their brothers and sisters. How many wars are there! And in how many places are dignity and freedom trampled today!”

The pope also spoke of “other scenes of this third world war” and mentioned, for example, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, the Sahel, Iran and Myanmar. He also asked not to forget about the refugees, the poor and the starving in the world.

View of conflict in the Middle East

The pope also thought “of the Holy Land, where violence and clashes have increased in recent months, with deaths and injuries”. There the Christmas celebration had begun on Christmas Eve with the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. This was led by the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

During the midnight mass in Bethlehem, Pizzaballa also warned of an increase in violence in the region. “We see that violence has apparently become our main language, our primary means of communication,” he said during his speech at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church next to the Church of the Nativity.

This year has seen “an appalling increase in violence in the Palestinian streets, with a death toll that takes us back decades.” It is a worrying sign of political tension and unease, especially among young people, over the ongoing, unresolved conflict with Israel. Pizzaballa also expressed concern about the formation of a right-wing religious government in Israel with far-right politicians. According to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, 170 Palestinians have been killed this year in clashes or their own attacks, more than at any time since 2006. (sda/dpa)