Pope's Christmas wish: hope for a better world

[umbertino]

As wars rage around the world, Pope Francis says everyone should strive to be peacemakers

 

 

By Andrea Vogt, Rome

11:47AM GMT 25 Dec 2013

 

 

 

Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for “a homemade peace” that could spread across the world on Wednesday, using his first Christmas speech as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to appeal for harmony in the Middle East, Syria and several war-torn African countries.

 

After wishing the crowd of 60,000 a Merry Christmas from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis delivered his first “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) Christmas message, calling on Christians to unite with non-believers to create a better world.

 

“Peace is a daily commitment. It is a homemade peace,” he said, adding that people of other religions were also praying for peace.

 

“I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace,” he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd.

 

Everyone could be his or her own personal “artisan” peacemaker, said Pope Francis, who was elected in March to lead the 1.2 billion-member Church.

 

 

He called for access to humanitarian aid in Syria, where “hate and revenge is being fomented daily” and pleaded for “social harmony” in South Sudan, where the peaceful coexistence in the young state is at risk.

 

He asked that “hearts filled with violence” be converted and convinced lay down their arms and instead follow the path of dialogue. He also pleaded for divine intervention to rescue child soldiers “robbed of their childhood” and for dialogue and an end to conflicts in Syria, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, as well as a positive outcome for the peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

 

“War breaks apart and hurts so many lives,” Pope Francis said, his voice and hands trembling with emphasis as he paused to look out over the rapt crowd packed into St. Peter’s Square. Children, elderly, battered women and the sick are among wars most vulnerable victims, he added.

 

He also appealed that the environment be rescued from “human greed” and asked for prayers for the victims of natural catastrophes, such as the people of Phillipines whose lives were destroyed by the typhoon. He appealed for a stop to human trafficking, calling at a “crime against humanity” and said migrants deserve a more dignified life.

 

“We pray that tragedies like what we saw, with the numerous deaths in Lampedusa, do not happen anymore.”

 

He underlined the importance of allowing oneself to be “warmed by the tenderness of God.” “God is peace: let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day, in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world,” he said.

 

“Let us not be afraid that our heart be moved. We need that our hearts be moved.”

 

Pilgrims came from all over the world to celebrate Christmas in Rome and the Vatican reported a record number of requests from faithful wanting to take part in the traditional Christmas vigil Mass on Tuesday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica.

 

On Monday he paid a Christmas visit to his predecessor, 86-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, who retired last February saying he no longer had the physical and spiritual strength to lead the church. He was the first pope in 600 years to step down.

 

Pope Francis, from Argentina, was elected in the papal conclave March 13. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first non-European Pope since since Pope Gregory II, 1272 years prior. His popularity has surged as a result of his open, approachable style and frank approach to the Church’s thorny issues. On Tuesday, Vatican footage of the two popes praying and chatting together at Christmastime was broadcast around the world.

 

Vatican observers commented that his first Christmas homily on Tuesday night was notable for its brevity, at just over 700 words. It opened with a description of the burst of light on a dark Christmas night, and said the contrast of light and dark is part of the spiritual life.

 

“If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk in the light,” the pope said.

 

“If our heart is closed, if we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, then darkness falls within us and around us,” he said.

 

Describing the traditional Christmas story of the birth of Christ in a manger, he recalled how the shepherds heard the news first.

 

“They were the first,” he said, “because they were among the last, the marginalized, the outcast.”

Toward the end of the homily, he also repeated that the Lord is merciful, repeating what has become one of his more common phrases, “God always forgives.”

 

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10537543/Popes-Christmas-wish-hope-for-a-better-world.html

 

[gamblinkid]

Having heard part of it on TV, he gives an important peace message for all races and creeds.

[millionaire in training]

Hope for all.....