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This December 25 there are several Christmas wishes of Pope Francis. His first wish: coronavirus protection vaccines for everyone. Also human brotherhood and peace for the Middle East, a ceasefire for the Caucasus, stop armed conflicts in Africa and hope for America and Asia. Faced with so much suffering, the Child Jesus is born for all: let us open our hearts to welcome him.
Mireia Bonilla – Vatican City
This noon Pope Francis delivered his traditional Christmas Message and imparted the “Urbi et Orbi” Blessing (to the city and the world) from the Hall of Blessings and not from the central Balcony of the Vatican Basilica as traditionally everyone has done. the Popes throughout history. Today Francis has announced a direct message: “A child has been born” and this Child, Jesus, has been born “for us” because he is the “son” that God has given to the entire human family.
The Pope explaining that Jesus was born in a stable, but enveloped in the love of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph and by being born in the flesh, the Son of God consecrated family love, he has taken the opportunity to address families, those who do not can meet today, as well as those who are forced to stay at home: “May Christmas be an opportunity for everyone to rediscover the family as the cradle of life and faith; a welcoming place of love, dialogue, forgiveness, fraternal solidarity and shared joy, a source of peace for all humanity ”.
We are all in the same boat: Each person is my brother!
Francisco also recalled that at this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and by serious economic and social imbalances, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, we need fraternity more than ever: “A fraternity based on real love, capable to find the other who is different from me, to sympathize with his suffering, to approach and take care of him, even if he is not my family, my ethnic group, my religion; He is different from me but he is my brother, he is my sister ”.
God offers us this fraternity by giving us his Son Jesus, therefore, the Pope’s desire is that the Child of Bethlehem helps us “to be available, generous and supportive, especially with the most fragile people, the sick and all those who in this At the moment they are without work or in serious difficulties due to the economic consequences of the pandemic, as well as with the women who in these months of confinement have suffered domestic violence ”. “We are all in the same boat. Each person is my brother ”, Francisco insisted.
Pope’s First Wish: Vaccines for All
Francisco recalls that at Christmas we celebrate the light of Christ and today, in this time of darkness and uncertainty due to the pandemic, “several lights of hope appear, such as the discoveries of vaccines.” “But – he assured – for these lights to illuminate and bring hope to everyone, they must be available to everyone.” “We cannot let closed nationalisms prevent us from living as the true human family that we are. Nor can we let the virus of radical individualism overtake us and make us indifferent to the suffering of other brothers and sisters. I cannot put myself ahead of the rest, putting the laws of the market and patents of invention above the laws of love and the health of humanity. That is why he has asked state leaders, companies and international organizations “to promote cooperation and not competition, and to seek a solution for all: vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy in all regions of the planet” .
Desire for brotherhood and peace for the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean
Another of the Pope’s wishes for this Christmas 2020 is that this is the right moment “to dissolve tensions throughout the Middle East and in the eastern Mediterranean.” For this reason, he has asked that the Child Jesus “heal once again the wounds of the beloved people of Syria”, who for a decade have been exhausted by the war and its consequences, further aggravated by the pandemic, “to bring comfort to the Iraqi people and to all those who have committed themselves to the path of reconciliation, especially the Yazidis ”, who have been severely hit in the last years of war, and“ may he bring peace to Libya ”and allow the new phase of ongoing negotiations end all forms of hostility in the country.
The Pope has also asked fraternity for the land that gave birth to the Child of Bethlehem: “that the Israelis and the Palestinians can regain mutual trust to seek a just and lasting peace through direct dialogue” and that the star that lit the night May it serve as a guide and encouragement to the people of Lebanon “so that, in the difficulties they face, with the support of the international community, they do not lose hope.”
And of course, on the day that the Word of God becomes a child, the Pontiff also asks us to direct our gaze to so many children who throughout the world, especially in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, are still paying the high price of the war: “May your faces touch the consciences of people of good will, so that the causes of conflict can be addressed and courageously worked to build a future of peace.”
Desire for a ceasefire in the Caucasus
The third wish of the Holy Father is for the cease-fire in the Caucasus region: “that the Son of the Most High supports the commitment of the international community and the countries involved to maintain the cease-fire in Upper Karabakh, as well as in the eastern regions of Ukraine, and to favor dialogue as the only way that leads to peace and reconciliation ”.
End the armed conflicts in Africa
Francis’s gaze this Christmas is also directed towards Africa, for which he asks “that the Divine Child alleviate the suffering of the populations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, lacerated by a serious humanitarian crisis, at the base of which are extremisms and armed conflicts, but also the pandemic and other natural disasters; to stop the violence in Ethiopia, where many people are forced to flee because of the fighting; to comfort the inhabitants of the Cabo Delgado region, in northern Mozambique, victims of the violence of international terrorism; and encourage those in charge of South Sudan, Nigeria and Cameroon to continue the path of brotherhood and dialogue that they have undertaken. ”
Hope for America and Asia
The Pope’s Christmas message this year also reminds the American continent, particularly affected by the coronavirus, so that “the eternal Word of the Father is a source of hope.” Also to “help overcome recent social tensions in Chile and put an end to the suffering of the Venezuelan people.”
Finally, the Bishop of Rome has requested that the King of Heaven “protect the peoples hit by natural disasters in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines and Vietnam”, where numerous storms have caused floods with devastating effects for families who they live in those lands. And thinking of Asia, the Rohingya people could not be forgotten: “May Jesus, born poor among the poor, bring hope to their suffering.”
