VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Monday recommended jettisoning life’s “useless baggage” in 2018, including what he called “empty chatter” and banal consumerism, and focusing instead on building a peaceful and welcoming world, particularly for refugees and migrants. Francis offered his reflections on paring down non-essentials as he celebrated New Year’s Day Mass Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica and later greeted some 40,000 people in St. Peter’s Square. The Catholic church designates Jan. 1 as World Peace Day, and in his comments after Mass to the crowd in the square outside the basilica, Francis noted that this year’s focus of the day was the search for peace by migrants and refugees. “I desire, yet again, to speak for these our brothers and sisters who invoke for their future a horizon of peace,” Francis said. Francis in his appeal Monday said of refugees and migrants: “Let us not extinguish the hope in their hearts.

Source: National Post January 01, 2018 10:33 UTC