In his Christmas message, Pope Francis called for tolerance and cohesion between people in the face of conflict and war.
„Our difference does not hurt us (…), it does not mean danger; rather, it is a wealth, „said the Head of the Catholic Church on the first day of Christmas, from the loggia of St. Peter’s in front of some 50,000 people in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. „It’s like an artist who wants to make a mosaic: it’s better to have stones with many colors available than to work with just a few colors!“
The universal message of Christmas is that „we are all siblings,“ said the Argentinean on Tuesday afternoon. „Without the brotherhood Jesus has given us, all our efforts to create a fairer world will be short lived, and even the best of intentions will become soulless structures.“ Despite differences and disagreements, an „indissoluble bond“ holds people in all their diversity of ethnicities, languages and cultures together.
Before the Argentine donated the traditional „Urbi et Orbi“ rain, he addressed conflicts and wars all over the world. The pontiff expressed the hope that Israelis and Palestinians will end the decade-long conflict with dialogue. With a view to the war in Syria, he called for a determined commitment on the part of the international community to find a political solution that „sets aside divisions and individual interests.“ „For Yemen, I hope that the ceasefire brokered by the international community will finally bring relief to the many children and the population exhausted by war and hunger.“
Francis also referred to the crises in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ukraine as well as the misery in many parts of Africa. North and South Korea may advance «on the path of rapprochement», said the Pope. He also commemorated the Christians who celebrate Christmas in some parts of the world as a minority „in a difficult – not to say hostile – environment“.
The Christmas message and the papal blessing are in addition to the Christmas Mass on Christmas Eve the highlights of the Christmas celebration in the Vatican. In the church service on Monday evening, Pope Francis complained of greed and excess.
In the Holy Land, the local head of the Catholic Church called on Christians to stay in the cities where Jesus was born, lived and died. „Jesus was born in Bethlehem,“ said Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa in St. Catherine’s Church next to the Nativity in Bethlehem at midnight mass. The number of Christians in the region has shrunk steadily in the face of the difficult economic and political situation over the past decades.
The Israeli Bureau of Statistics said at Christmas that Israel currently has about 175,000 Christians. According to them, they account for about two percent of the population. The number of Christians in the Palestinian territories is estimated at 50,000.
