Pope Francis laments the ‘icy winds of warfare’ buffeting humanity at Christmas : NPR

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the “icy winds of warfare” buffeting humanity and to make an impassioned plea for a right away finish to the combating in Ukraine, a 10-month-old battle he decried as “mindless.”

At midday native time, Francis delivered the standard “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “‘to town and to the world”) speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Tens of hundreds of vacationers, pilgrims and residents of Rome crowded into St. Peter’s Sq. to take heed to the pontiff and to obtain his blessing.

Francis additionally cited long-running conflicts within the Center East, together with within the Holy Land, “the place in current months violence and confrontations have elevated, bringing loss of life and harm of their wake.” As well as, he prayed for a long-lasting truce in Yemen and for reconciliation in Iran and Myanmar.

He lamented that on Christmas, the “path of peace” is blocked by social forces that embrace “attachment to energy and cash, delight, hypocrisy, falsehood.”

“Certainly, we should acknowledge with sorrow that, even because the Prince of Peace is given to us, the icy winds of warfare proceed to buffet humanity,” Francis mentioned.

“If we would like it to be Christmas, the start of Jesus and of peace, allow us to look to Bethlehem and ponder the face of the kid who’s born for us,” he mentioned. “And in that small and harmless face, allow us to see the faces of all these youngsters who, in every single place on the planet, lengthy for peace.”

Francis urged the trustworthy to recollect the tens of millions of Ukrainians who have been with out electrical energy or heating Sunday due to Russian assaults on vitality infrastructure, in addition to the tens of millions extra residing as refugees overseas or displaced inside their nation because the Feb. 24 invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Allow us to additionally see the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who’re experiencing this Christmas in the dead of night and chilly, removed from their properties because of the devastation brought on by 10 months of warfare,” the pontiff mentioned.

The pope prayed that the Lord will “enlighten the minds of those that have the facility to silence the thunder of weapons and put a right away finish to this mindless warfare!”

“On at the present time, as we sit round a well-spread desk, could we not avert our gaze from Bethlehem, a city whose title means ‘home of bread,’ however consider all these, particularly the youngsters, who go hungry whereas big quantities of meals every day go to waste and assets are being spent on weapons.”

“The warfare in Ukraine has additional aggravated this case, placing total peoples susceptible to famine, particularly in Afghanistan and within the international locations of the Horn of Africa,” Francis mentioned.

Early in the way in which, sea mines and a Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s ports choked off shipments from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine, one of many world’s largest producers of grain and corn. An settlement brokered by Turkey and the U.N.has sought to deal with the issue.