Pope Christmas message offers hope in world hit by terrorism, war
Pope Francis on Sundayoffered a Christmas hope for peace in a world lacerated by war and terrorism, urging people to remember migrants, refugees and those hit by economic instability caused by “idolatry of money”.
Pope Francis, marking the fourth Christmas season since his election in 2013, also urged Palestinians and Israelis, facing renewed tension after a U.N. resolution condemning Israelisettlements on occupied land, to have the courage to put aside hate and revenge and “write a new page of history”.
His traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message was linked by a common thread of war, violence and suffering at a time that should be defined by harmony and peacesymbolised by the infant Jesus.
“Peace to those who have lost a person dear to them as aresult of brutal acts of terrorism, which have sown fear anddeath into the hearts of so many countries and cities,” he toldsome 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
“Today this message (of peace) goes out to the ends of the earth to reach all peoples, especially those scarred by war andharsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace,”he said, speaking in Italian from the central balcony of St.Peter’s Basilica.
He called for peace in Syria, urging immediate assistance tothe exhausted population of the city of Aleppo, which Syrian government forces recaptured last week after four years of devastating fighting with rebels.
“It is time for weapons to be still forever (in Syria), and the international community to actively seek a negotiatedsolution, so that civil co-existence can be restored in thecountry,” he said.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, also said Christmas should inspire everyone to help the less fortunate, includingmigrants, refugees and those swept up by social and economicupheavals.
“Peace to the peoples who suffer because of the economic ambitions of the few, because of the sheer greed and the idolatry of money, which leads to slavery,” he said.
At his Christmas eve Mass on Saturday, Francis said the feast had been “taken hostage” by dazzling materialism that putsGod in the shadows.
On Sunday, he also called for an end to “fundamentalistterrorism” in Nigeria, a reference to Boko Haram, which haskilled 15,000 people and displaced more than two million duringa seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state..
Francis further appealed for an end to tensions between the government and opposition in Venezuela, for harmony in Colombia, which recently ended a civil war with FARC guerrillas, and an end to strife on the Korean peninsula and in Myanmar.
SOURCE: PTI