Tuesday evening, during Christmas mass, he had already denounced the “machine-gunned children”, the “bombs on schools or hospitals”, an allusion to the Israeli strikes on Gaza whose “cruelty” he denounced this week, sparking the protests of Israeli diplomacy.
The Argentine Jesuit also called for humanitarian aid to be facilitated in Sudan ravaged by 20 months of war, where the famine affecting millions of displaced people risks spreading according to the UN. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 12 million Sudanese, causing the world's largest displacement crisis according to the United Nations.
“Break down all walls”
From Burma to Haiti via Mali, Venezuela and Cyprus, Francis cited no less than 18 countries, focusing in particular on the Middle East “torn apart by conflicts”. The Bishop of Rome said he was “close to the Christian community in Lebanon”, and “to that of Syria, in this very delicate period” marked by a new Islamist power and where Christians fear for their future.
In Africa, he prayed for the “families of thousands of children who are dying from a measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo” and the people “of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Mozambique.” “The humanitarian crisis affecting them is mainly caused by armed conflicts and the scourge of terrorism. It is aggravated by the devastating effects of climate change which lead to loss of human life and the displacement of millions of people,” he lamented.
Speaking of his native American continent, Francis invited leaders to strive to “build the common good and rediscover the dignity of each person, beyond political divisions.” Without mentioning the United States, where President-elect Donald Trump threatens to send back millions of migrants, Francis called for “breaking down all walls of separation: the ideological walls, which so often mark political life, and the physical walls” .
Jorge Bergoglio also renewed his call to cancel the debt of the poorest countries on the occasion of Jubilee 2025, which he launched Tuesday evening, the “holy year” of the Catholic Church organized every 25 years and for which more 30 million pilgrims are expected in Rome.
