Pope Francis used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the 'icy winds of war” buffeting humanity and to make an impassioned plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, a 10-month-old conflict he decried as “senseless.”
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the "icy winds of war” buffeting humanity and to make an impassioned plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, a 10-month-old conflict he decried as “senseless.”At noon local time on Sunday, Francis delivered the traditional “Urbi et Orbi″ speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica
On a sunny day, with the midday temperature reaching about 15 degrees Celsius , warm for a Roman winter, some 70,000 tourists, pilgrims and residents of the city packed St. Peter’s Square to listen to the pontiff and to receive his blessing. “Indeed, we must acknowledge with sorrow that, even as the Prince of Peace is given to us, the icy winds of war continue to buffet humanity," Francis said.
“Let us also see the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes due to the devastation caused by 10 months of war,” the pontiff said as he gestured toward those in the crowd waving small Ukrainian flags. The first pontiff from Latin America, he prayed that Christmas would “inspire the political authorities and all people of good will in the Americas to attempt to calm the political and social tensions experienced by various countries."
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