After a year marked by war in Ukraine, Pope Francis today criticized the wars and strife in the world. At the Christmas mass in St. Peter’s Basilica he said: “People who are hungry for power and money in the world even consume their neighbors, their brothers and sisters. How many wars are there! And in how many places are dignity and freedom still trampled underfoot today!” In his sermon, however, he did not directly name the Ukraine war.
At the service, which was celebrated for the first time following two years of the pandemic in front of around 7,000 guests in the full St. Peter’s Basilica and in front of around 3,000 people outside on St. Peter’s Square, Francis called the weak and poor the “main victims of human greed”.
He said: “Even this Christmas, a humanity insatiably striving for money, power and pleasure makes no room for the little ones, for the many unborn, poor, forgotten people, as was the case with Jesus. I am thinking in particular of the children who are being devoured by war, poverty and injustice.”
Pope celebrated Mass while seated
Francis presided over the Mass, but celebrated it largely sitting next to the altar because of his knee pain. The Argentine mentioned that Jesus was born without luxury or comfort, but that “revealed the true richness of life,” which is human relationships. “Of course it’s not easy to leave the pleasant warmth of worldliness to embrace the stark beauty of the Grotto of Bethlehem,” he said.
“But we should remember that there is no real Christmas without the poor. Even without them, Christmas is celebrated, but not the Christmas of Jesus,” Francis preached. “Brothers, sisters, God is poor at Christmas: may charity blossom once more!”
