Pope Leo condemns struggling in Gaza in first Christmas sermon | EUROtoday

Pope Leo XIV used his inaugural Christmas Day sermon on Thursday to recollect the individuals of Gaza, who he stated have been “exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold,” asserting that the world’s quite a few conflicts can solely be resolved by way of real dialogue.

Leading the Christmas Day Mass from the central altar beneath the balustrade of St. Peter’s Basilica, which was adorned with festive floral garlands and clusters of pink poinsettias, the pontiff delivered a poignant message.

White flowers had been rigorously positioned on the ft of a statue of Mary, mom of Jesus, whose start is well known on this present day.

Recalling the incarnation of God by way of Jesus’s start in a Bethlehem manger, Leo likened God’s phrase to “a fragile tent among us.”

He then drew a direct parallel, asking: “How then can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold; and of those so many other refugees and displaced persons on every continent, or of the makeshift shelters of thousands of homeless people in our own cities?”

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The pontiff additionally mirrored on the vulnerability of “defenseless populations, tried by so many wars,” and the plight of “young people forced to take up arms, who on the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked of them, and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths.”

Emphasising that peace can solely emerge by way of real dialog, Leo acknowledged: “There will be peace when our monologues are interrupted and, enriched by listening, we fall to our knees before the humanity of the other.”

Thousands of worshippers stuffed the Basilica for the Pope’s first Christmas Day Mass, many holding smartphones aloft to seize the opening procession.

Leo was later scheduled to ship the normal “Urbi et Orbi” blessing – Latin for “to the City and the World” – from a loggia overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the place the trustworthy gathered regardless of a gradual rain.

This Christmas season marks the conclusion of the Holy Year celebrations, that are set to shut on 6 January, coinciding with the Catholic Epiphany vacation commemorating the go to of the three clever males to the toddler Jesus in Bethlehem.