Pope Francis condemns religious persecution in Christmas address
Speaking to a packed crowd outside St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, the Argentine pontiff also made a strong call to end violence wrought against children amid “indifference and tears”.
Pope Francis roundly condemned jihadist violence and the “brutal persecution” of religious minorities in a Christmas message to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and millions of others.
Speaking to a packed crowd outside St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, the Argentine pontiff also made a strong call to end violence wrought against children amid “indifference and tears”.
His second traditional “urbi et orbi” message (to the city and to the world) comes at the close of a year plagued by war and violent religious fundamentalism, notably in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and most recently against schoolchildren in Pakistan.“Truly there are so many tears this Christmas,” he said in the message broadcast across the world.
Without naming the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group, he said Christians in Iraq and Syria “for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict” and “together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups are suffering a brutal persecution”.
Killings and hostage-takings from the Middle East to Nigeria and elsewhere must stop, he said.
Visibly moved and departing from his text, the 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church noted “the children massacred by bombardments, including where the son of God was born” – in the Holy Land – and their “powerless silence that cries under the sword”.
Denouncing “indifference”, he explicitly condemned abortion, deploring the children “killed before seeing the light”.