Vatican City: Pope Francis issued a strident call in his Christmas day message to safeguard children who are victims “under our very eyes” of violence and trafficking, while also demanding an end to “brutal persecution” worldwide.
Killings and hostage-takings from the Middle East to Nigeria and elsewhere must stop, he said in his annual Christmas “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) message.
Denouncing conflicts in Ukraine and Libya, and noting last week’s deadly attack against a school in Pakistan, the pontiff also lamented the thousands of victims of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
“Truly there are so many tears this Christmas,” he said.
The popular Argentine pontiff, visibly moved and departing from his text, denounced “indifference”, explicitly condemned abortion and deplored the children “killed before seeing the light”.
Speaking to a large crowd massed outside Saint Peter’s Basilica — in a speech that was broadcast live in 3D for the first time — the pope urged Ukrainians to “overcome tensions, conquer hatred and violence and set out on a new journey of fraternity and reconciliation”.
There were “too many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, adults and elderly, from this region and the whole world,” he said.
He called for peace in “the whole Middle East” and continued efforts towards “dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.
The pope too urged peace in Nigeria “where more blood is being shed”, as well as in Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He noted the victims of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and thanked those who were “courageously” assisting the sick.
Pope Francis called for “tenderness” and “warmth” as millions of Christians began marking Christmas.
“Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?” the pope asked.
“Or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!” he said.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics also called on “the arrogant, the proud ... [and] those closed off to others” to meet life “with goodness, with meekness.”
Outside the church at Manger Square, a man dressed as Santa Claus handed out sweets next to a giant green Christmas tree decorated with red, black and silver baubles — the colours of the Palestinian flag.
But for many faithful across the region, the festivities will be tinged with sadness following a year of bloodshed marked by a surge in the persecution of Christians that has drawn international condemnation.
“For many of you, the music of your Christmas hymns will also be accompanied by tears and sighs,” Pope Francis wrote in a long letter addressed to Christians in the Middle East.
Francis delivered a Christmas message via telephone to refugees displaced to Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region.
“Dear brothers, I am close to you, very close to you in my heart,” the pope was quoted as telling the refugees by Italian press agency AGI.
“The children and the elderly are in my heart,” Francis also told the Iraqi refugees in the Ankawa camp.
In Baghdad, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako said about 150,000 Christians had been displaced by an offensive spearheaded by Daesh group, with dozens leaving Iraq each day.
Iraq’s displaced Christians “still live in a tragic situation and there are no quick solutions for them,” Sako said.
