Pope Francis has requested this Sunday a ceasefire on all war fronts with a view to Christmas, and that the death sentences be commuted for those awaiting execution in the United States, who are thirteen or fifteen people. He says it would be “a sign of hope for humanity tested by crises and conflicts.” It was during a marathon and exhausting day, a few days before turning 88, in which he presided over three major events and which he crowned in the Spanish Steps in Rome.
Early in the morning, Pope Francis celebrated a massive mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with the new cardinals. In the ceremony, he stopped to explain what the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary means to Catholics. This being “free from sin” is also, according to Francis, a call to be “willing to make room for God in our projects and to welcome with maternal tenderness all the brothers and sisters we meet on our path.”
The proposal contrasts with “the presumption of self-sufficiency that produces neither love nor happiness.” «What is the point of having money in the bank, comforts in the apartments, false contacts in the virtual world, if then the hearts remain cold, empty or closed? What good are the high levels of financial growth of privileged countries, if half the world dies from hunger and war, while the rest watch with indifference? “What’s the point of traveling around the entire planet, if then each encounter is reduced to the emotion of the moment, to a photograph that no one will remember after a few days or a few months?” he asked himself.
Furthermore, according to Francis, “he who exalts as he conquers the rejection of every stable and lasting bond, does not generate freedom; “Whoever disrespects father and mother, who does not want children, who considers others as an object or as a nuisance, who considers sharing as a loss and solidarity as impoverishment, does not spread joy or a future.”
Uncertainty in Nicaragua
During the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope sent greetings to Nicaragua, a country that celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception in a particular way. “In this solemnity I am particularly close to the Nicaraguans,” he said. “I invite you to join in prayer for the Church and the people of Nicaragua,” the pilgrims then requested, “so that the Virgin Mary consoles them in difficulties and uncertainties, and opens the hearts of all, so that “The path of respectful and constructive dialogue must always be sought in order to promote peace, fraternity and harmony in the country.”
In the Central American country, the Sandinista regime continues the pressure campaign against Catholics, and according to Human Rights activist Martha Patricia Molina, Daniel Ortega has requested religious congregations to leave the country before the end of the year.
Francis has also prayed “for peace in the martyred Ukraine, in the Middle East – Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and now Syria -, in Myanmar, Sudan and wherever people suffer from war and violence.” He then made “an appeal to the rulers and the international community, so that the Christmas holiday can be reached with a ceasefire on all war fronts.”
Deviating from the text he had prepared, the Pope assured that “it comes from my heart to ask you to pray for the detainees who are on death row in the United States, I think there are 13 or 15.” ·Let us pray that his sentence is commuted, changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death,” he requested.
Visit to the center of Rome
In the afternoon, as night fell, the Pope took to the streets of Rome to commemorate the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the “piazza di Spagna” and greet the Eternal City a few weeks before the Jubilee of Hope that will inaugurate on the 24th. December. At the foot of the 11-meter column raised in front of the façade of the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, the Pope pronounced a prayer and said that “the Jubilee will be a message of hope for humanity tested by crises and conflicts.
Joking about the chaos in the city due to public works to prepare the reception of millions of people, “they are a sign that Rome is alive, it renews itself, it tries to adapt to needs, to be more welcoming and functional,” he said. asked to “pray for the mayor.” But he has also warned of the danger of losing sight of the spiritual key to the event. “We run the risk of getting totally caught up in the organization, in the things that have to be done, and then the grace of the Holy Year, which is a time of spiritual rebirth, forgiveness and social liberation, this jubilee grace is stifled.”
After the prayer, Francis paused for a long time to shake hands with the Romans who were waiting for him at the barriers, and briefly greeted the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, Isabel Celaá, and her collaborators at the embassy. During the car journey, four people tried unsuccessfully to stop the papal procession, with banners against bullfighting. The last known bullfight in Rome was in 1923, and Mussolini attended it.
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