“Let the guns remain silent in the Middle East. With my eyes fixed on the cradle of Bethlehem, I direct my thoughts to the Christian communities of Israel and Palestine, in particular to Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious.” From the balcony of blessings, in the center of St. Peter’s Basilica, and before tens of thousands of faithful, Pope Francis once again launched a message for the end of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, which in a recent book he has described as “genocide”.
During the traditional ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing, which is given on Christmas Day, Bergoglio drew his particular ‘map of the world’, pointing out the injustices that plague different territories, from Palestine to Nicaragua, passing through Congo, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela , Lebanon, Mozambique, Haiti or Cyprus, and once again launched a message for the forgiveness of foreign debt as a gesture of the great Jubilee that was inaugurated yesterday with the opening of the Holy Door in San Pedro. “May the Jubilee be the occasion to forgive debts, especially those that burden the poorest countries,” he cried.
After congratulating those present on Christmas, the Pope invited “all people, all peoples and nations” to “silence the weapons and overcome divisions.”
“Let the guns fall silent in the martyred Ukraine. May we have the audacity to open the door to negotiations and gestures of dialogue and encounter, to reach a just and lasting peace,” began Francis, who also called for an end to violence in the Middle East, with special pain to the situation in Gaza. “Let the fire cease, the hostages be released and the population exhausted by hunger and war be helped.”
“Let the guns fall silent in the martyred Ukraine. May we have the audacity to open the door to negotiations and gestures of dialogue and encounter, to reach a just and lasting peace.”
The violence in Lebanon or Libya, and the new situation in Syria, “at this very delicate moment,” were also part of what is considered Francis’ most political speech during the year. “May the doors of dialogue and peace be opened throughout the region, torn by conflict,” prayed the Pope, who also remembered “the families of thousands of children who are dying due to the measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the populations of the east of that country and those of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Mozambique.”
A humanitarian crisis that, like so many others in the world, “is caused mainly by armed conflicts and the plague of terrorism and is aggravated by the devastating effects of climate change, which causes the loss of human life and the displacement of millions of people. “, denounced Francisco, who demanded that the international community “favor the access of the civilian population of Sudan to humanitarian aid and launch new negotiations with the purpose of a ceasefire.”
“May the Jubilee be an occasion to tear down all the walls of separation: the ideological ones, which so often mark political life, and the material ones”
Along with the Middle East or the Horn of Africa, the concerns of Francis’ Christmas message turned to the American continent, “in order to find as soon as possible effective solutions in truth and justice, to promote social harmony, particularly in Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia and Nicaragua, and work, especially during this Jubilee Year, to build the common good and rediscover the dignity of each person, overcoming political divisions.”
“May the Jubilee be an occasion to tear down all the walls of separation: the ideological ones, which so often mark political life, and the material ones,” prayed Bergoglio, who cried out for the situation of “all the children who suffer from war and hunger” and “the elderly, often forced to live in conditions of loneliness and abandonment.” Also, “to those who have lost their own home or are fleeing their land, trying to find a safe refuge”, those imprisoned or those who, despite it being Christmas, still do not have a ‘Silent Night’.
All information in www.religiondigital.org
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