PhotoROME — Pope Francis used his annual Christmas Day address on Monday to make clear his concern that serenity is sorely lacking at a time when the “winds of war” and an “outdated model of development” are taking a toll on humanity, society and the environment. Addressing a crowd from a balcony at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, the pope delivered his Urbi et Orbi — Latin for “to the city and the world” — benediction, which read like a litany of global conflicts and problems. But it was also an opportunity to pray for a positive turn of events, for a resuscitation of a two-state solution in the Middle East to the healing of war-torn Syria and Ukraine, for the easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula to a return to dialogue in Venezuela. In recent days, the pope said on Twitter that a true celebration of Christmas would free the holiday from consumerism and the “worldliness that has taken it hostage!”He has urged the faithful to instead focus on the “fragile simplicity of a new-born baby. That’s where God is.”Advertisement Continue reading the main storyIt was that image that he returned to in his Christmas remarks, urging Rome and the world to see the baby Jesus “in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Source: New York Times December 25, 2017 13:51 UTC