VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI yesterday called for an “end to the bloodshed” in Syria and denounced the “savage” violence in Africa.
Speaking in his traditional Christmas message, the pope touched on several other of the world’s conflict zones. A capacity crowd of 40,000 pilgrims filled the vast St Peter’s Square to hear the 85-year-old pope, resplendent in red vestments, deliver the “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) message.
Speaking from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the pope called for a return of peace in Nigeria, where he said “savage acts of terrorism continue to reap victims, particularly among Christians.”
The pope said: “There is hope in the world... even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations.” He prayed for peace in Syria, whose people have been “deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims.”
In a message watched by millions around the world, he called “for an end to the bloodshed... and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict.”
His wide-ranging speech called for peace in the Middle East and appealed to the new leadership in China to respect religious freedom there.
In Indonesia, more than 200 Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass outside Jakarta, police said.
At the midnight mass in Bethlehem, the most senior Roman Catholic bishop in the Middle East issued a special call for efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Only justice and peace in the Holy Land can reestablish balance and stability in the region and in the world,” Patriarch Fuad Twal told worshippers in the West Bank city, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
“From this holy place, I invite politicians and men of good will to work with determination for peace and reconciliation that encompasses Palestine and Israel in the midst of all the sufferings in the Middle East,” Twal said.
The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, in his final Christmas Day sermon, acknowledged that last month’s failure by England’s state church to approve women bishops had been “deeply painful”.
The decision had damaged the church’s reputation, Rowan Williams, who steps down at the end of the year, said from Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England.
In South Africa, former leader Nelson Mandela shared Christmas greetings with visitors to his hospital bedside, including his wife Graca Machel, other family members and President Jacob Zuma. “We found him in good spirits,” Zuma said. “He was happy to have visitors on this special day and is looking much better.”
Another prominent former world leader was confined to a hospital bed for Christmas this year: Margaret Thatcher of Britain. The 87-year-old former prime minister was admitted to hospital on Thursday for a minor operation to remove a growth in her bladder.
Afp
