Actuality
Of Giorgio Brescia – December 25, 2024
Twenty-five thousand faithful in St. Peter's Square for the official opening of the Jubilee of Hope. In St. Peter's Basilica, six thousand faithful were present for the Christmas Eve mass presided over by the Pope. Today, from 8 in the morning, the Holy Door of St. Peter is open to the faithful.
Bergoglio officially opened the Holy Year dedicated to hope by opening the Holy Door. Then he presided over the Christmas Eve mass. At the end, in a wheelchair, flanked by a delegation of children from all over the world, he carried the Little Child into the nativity scene of St. Peter. Today Bergoglio will hold theThe city and the world relaunching the appeal for peace in the war-torn world. During the homily at Christmas Mass, he gave voice to all his concern in an off-the-cuff passage in which he denounced the “many desolations in this time. Let's think about wars, machine-gunned children, bombs on schools and hospitals. Don't delay, don't slow down, but let yourself be attracted by the good news.”
“Without delay,” he further observed, let's go and see the Lord who was born for us, with a light and alert heart, ready to meet, to be able to translate hope into the situations of our lives. And this is our task: to translate hope into the different situations of life. Because Christian hope is not a happy ending to be passively waited for, it is not the happy ending of a film: it is the promise of the Lord to be welcomed here, now, in this land that suffers and groans.”
“We have begun a new Jubilee – he said -: each of us can enter into the mystery of this announcement of grace. This is the night in which the door of hope opened onto the world; this is the night in which God says to everyone: there is hope for you too!”.
Thus the pontiff in his traditional Christmas message to the faithful in St. Peter's Square from the Central Loggia of the Vatican Basilica: “Let the weapons be silent in the Middle East! With my eyes fixed on the cradle of Bethlehem, I turn my thoughts to the Christian communities in Palestine and Israel, in particular in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious. Let the fire cease, the hostages be freed and the population exhausted by hunger and war be helped. I am also close to the Christian community in Lebanon, especially in the south, and to that in Syria, in this delicate moment. May the doors of dialogue and peace be opened throughout the region, torn by conflict. And I also want to remember the Libyan people here, encouraging them to seek solutions that allow national reconciliation.”
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