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Updated 11.25am
POPE FRANCIS HAS condemned this year’s “brutal” religious persecution in the Middle East and has looked for peace in Nigeria, Ukraine and other world troublespots in his annual Christmas “urbi et orbi” message.
Calling also for an end to violence against “vast numbers of children”, and noting last week’s deadly attack in Pakistan, he said: “Truly there are so many tears this Christmas.”
Delivering his second Christmas blessing, the popular Argentine pontiff, visibly moved and departing from his text, said vast numbers of children “are victims of violence, made objects of trade and trafficking”.
He asked Jesus to “give comfort to the families of the children killed in Pakistan,” referring to the 149 people, including 133 schoool-children, killed in Peshawar by the Taliban.
Speaking to a large crowd massed outside Saint Peter’s Basilica, the pope urged Ukrainians to “overcome tensions, conquer hatred and violence and set out on a new journey of fraternity and reconciliation”.
He turned too to the violence wrought by Islamic State fundamentalists this year in Syria and Iraq.
“I ask him, the Saviour of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution.”
There were “too many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, adults and elderly, from this region and the whole world,” he said.
He called for peace in “the whole Middle East” and continued efforts towards “dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.
The pope too urged peace in Nigeria “where more blood is being shed”, as well as in Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Reublic of the Congo.
He noted the victims of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and in Guinea and thanked those were “courageously” assisting the sick
Tenderness and warmth
In a separate address last night, the pontiff urged for “tenderness” and “warmth” after a violence-plagued year as millions of Christians began marking Christmas.
The Argentine pontiff’s brief homily was replete with Gospel references in his Christmas Eve mass, broadcast live in 3D for the first time.
“Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?” the pope asked in Saint Peter’s Basilica, filled with some 5,000 worshippers.
“Or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!” he said.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics also called on “the arrogant, the proud… (and) those closed off to others” to meet life “with goodness, with meekness”.
On Thursday, in his second “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) message, the pope is expected to address the plight of Christians and other religious minorities suffering persecution in the Middle East, notably at the hands of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group.
He is also due to touch on the war in Syria, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the Ebola epidemic, Islamic fundamentalist violence in northeastern Nigeria and the Ukraine conflict.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is expected to pay tribute to the “selflessness” of medical staff and aid workers fighting the Ebola epidemic in her annual Christmas Day broadcast.
In Bethlehem on Christmas Eve hectic preparations preceded celebrations on the West Bank town’s biggest night of the year, culminating in midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity built over the spot where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus.
Scouts playing bagpipes and drums marched to the church in a procession led by Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Catholic cleric in the Holy Land.
In his homily Twal called for “peace in Jerusalem”, where violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians rocked the city for months, and “equality and mutual respect” among all faiths.
He also asked for the rebuilding of Gaza, which was ravaged this summer during a 50-day war between Hamas and Israel in which more than 2,200 people died.
Outside the church at Manger Square, a man dressed as Santa Claus handed out sweets next to a giant green Christmas tree decorated with red, black and silver baubles — the colours of the Palestinian flag.
But for many faithful across the region, the festivities will be tinged with sadness following a year of bloodshed marked by a surge in the persecution of Christians that has drawn international condemnation.
“For many of you, the music of your Christmas hymns will also be accompanied by tears and sighs,” Pope Francis wrote in a long letter addressed to Christians in the Middle East.
Iraq’s ‘tragic situation’
Francis delivered a Christmas message via telephone to refugees displaced to Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region.
“Dear brothers, I am close to you, very close to you in my heart,” the pope was quoted as telling the refugees by Italian press agency AGI.
“The children and the elderly are in my heart,” Francis also told the Iraqi refugees in the Ankawa camp.
In Baghdad, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako said about 150,000 Christians had been displaced by an offensive spearheaded by the Islamic State group, which has targeted Christians and other minorities, with dozens leaving Iraq each day.
Iraq’s displaced Christians “still live in a tragic situation and there are no quick solutions for them,” Sako told AFP.
In Syria, Christians in the war-torn city of Homs were enjoying their first Christmas in three years in the Hamidiyeh neighbourhood, with a brightly coloured tree and a manger made from rubble set up in the middle of the ruins.
“Our joy is indescribable,” said Taghrid Naanaa while picking out tree decorations at a shop in the district, which the Syrian army recaptured from rebel fighters this year.
‘Justice for Christmas’
In France, the busy Christmas period has been marred by a series of attacks, including one linked to Islamic extremism, which killed one person and left another 25 wounded.
In the United States, officials scrambled to contain renewed anger after an armed black teenager was shot dead by a white officer in a St Louis suburb late Tuesday.
On Christmas morning in Australia, church leaders reflected on several tragedies that hit the country this year, including the Sydney cafe siege, where two hostages and the gunman died, the killings of eight children in Cairns and the Malaysia Airlines MH370 and MH17 flight disasters.
In Sierra Leone, all public Christmas festivities were cancelled as a result of the Ebola crisis, with soldiers deployed over the holiday season to prevent spontaneous street celebrations, officials said.
Ahead of the midnight mass in Bethlehem, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas laid out his own Christmas wish list.
“This Christmas we deliver a very special message to the world: All I want for Christmas is justice,” he said as the Palestinians press a major diplomatic push at the United Nations to seek an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation.
First published 7.21am
There will never be any genuine effort to hold the religious orders or their members to account for the institutionalised slavery, abuse and crimes against humanity carried out in the laundries, as long as the government of the day depends on the votes of God fearing elderly Catholics to stay in power. The magdeline laundries could not have operated without the deference of politician and assistance of our police force, so it’s not surprising that the children and grandchildren who took their relatives seats in the Dail are so reluctant to to the right thing.
@The Risen: Nailed it. It always comes down to votes and cash. The criminals will continue to get away scot free as long as their tribe of devoted followers have votes. There’s no political will in Ireland to prosecute criminals in the Catholic church.
@The Risen: I agree. Its odd though that when the journal published an article on the similarities between how the church and the provos treated their abuse victims you attacked the author of the article. What’s different now?
@The Risen: Very well put
@The Risen: when do expect these God fearing Catholics to expire? And who will they replace the parties with?
@The Risen: I agree but society also needs to hold their hands up and take some blame. Families would willingly hand over siblings etc to the authorities. It amazes me how much control the church had on generation’s. But from the laundries to the mental institutions the people are not blameless. Ok it could be argued that their was a group think mentality at the time but still.
@The Risen: it will never happen in an Ireland governed by the FF/FG merry go round. The main tenet of such governance being that the ‘ establishment protects the establishment at all costs’. NOTHING ever changes in the Status quo.
@The Risen: The redress scheme was projected to get 3,000 application and got 30,000. That cost something like €3 bill. Who is there to be prosecuted? Some old dear in her 90′s with failing memory? I’d prosecute the people responsible for dishing out €3 bill and the lawyers who drew up the statements of claim.
Every nun,priest ,”christian” brother,bishop, cardinal and pope should be dragged before a UN human rights abuse court for what the did in this country ..
@dangermouse: True. Absolute slime.
The govt not prosecuting is an embarrassing they are complicit
@dangermouse: Slime. Govt not prosecuting renders them complicit in my eyes
@Chris Finn: Far more to than that Chris. Doctors, barristers, Gardai, and politicians either knew or were directly involved to some extent, or at least the cover-ups afterwards.
To prosecute members of the church, they also have prosecute others outside the church. That’s why we’ll never see anyone held to account.
@dangermouse: Should’a, could”a, would’a. And let’s be realistic. Dramatisation helps nobody.
@Good Early: The families of these poor souls would have also been well are of what was going on in these places and yet continued to send many women there. No one was forced to hand their daughters over to these people. My own mam knows women who got pregnant in these times. The priests would come looking for them and many of the families told the priests where to go and that no uncertain terms would their daughters be going anywhere.
@dangermouse: UN human rights? They are doing the same themselves with girls in Africa
the people of ireland and families didnt care about these “fallen” women at the time. they were shunned and left on the streets. the only place to take them in was the laundries. ireland of the time was a tough and cruel place. these women greatly suffered but it was everyones fault.
@p kilgannon: More lies. Lonely people working away from home in a country with no contraception and no published information? Of course you had some secret pregnancies. Why worry a family who already had too many children to feed and needed money sent home? I am sure that most of those women never knew what had happened to them at first. It certainly wasn’t something to write home about. It’s such a lie to say they were abandoned by their families. I doubt they ever knew. I see not a single word of blame for the lads who fathered a child in these tough cruel times. That’s so charitable of you.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: no i didnt specifically blame the lads nor did i blame the ladies. no need for you to get so defensive. you are wrong, many women were abandoned by their families when they became pregnant. this is well known and told by the women themselves. this was happening regularly in ireland even in the 1980s.
Who are they going to prosecute. Who is responsible for the laundries . The church , nuns , government . The laundries provided a service that public was quiet happy to use .
Would be difficult to get a conviction…However the state should gave tried a test case….Bring a nun in her 80′s before a court….Find some witnesses to what she did to the women in the laundry…..Leave the decision to a judge…..Defence would be that was accepted culture of the time…..
@John003: piss away money for nothing to come of it. You don’t prosecute unless there is a reasonable chance it will be successful.
@John003: then the civil side of it. The thousands of families who dumped their daughters would need to reconcile inheritance monies with their as yet unknown families.
@lavbeer: Why would the State want to challenge any wills? Those women had no money – otherwise they would have had rights.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I was thinking of the children themselves challenging Willa they would have been disinherited from? Why not? I would be looking for my rightful place
@lavbeer: And good luck to you if that’s your choice. But I think any independently wealthy family wouldn’t have let a child of theirs be basically sent to the workhouse to be abused. They would be the only people with any assets to pass on. My guess is that most working women were sent into service because there were too many children to feed already. Most had no resources or any voice to begin with. You don’t seriously think that the church split the adoption fee with the girl’s family? I’m pretty sure that they kept every penny of it. Sure they didn’t even bury the children they starved.
The UN has no standing on human rights when some of their council members have the worst record on human rights. I can’t take any of it seriously when the Saudi’s are involved.
So let’s release all the “excitable boys” into the community. Or let’s build more jails to house the current inmates. Let’s worry about the cost later. A sure why not tax all those pesky workers even more…
The UN…one of the most pointless & useless organisations around… who cares what they say?
I dont believe in tarring everyone with the same brush ,lets not forget there was good nuns and priests doing sterling work in all fields .The mob mentality does nothing but divide us as a people .there are many storys i can recollect of wrong done ,personal stories ,but others where great human kindness was shown .there will always be legacy issues ,those that done terrible things and got away with it ,but lets not be judge and jury .society in those days had a victorian mindset ,IS it not wonderful to see how our social and moral values have changed for the better .
Human rights for all except single mothers and their babies.
The price of sin is the surrender of basic human rights.
That time has passed and the generation that were so fearful…respectful… of the religious are dying out literally, like myself. By all means prosecute, if there is evidence against any individual which can be proven, but take small comfort in the fact that no child today is afraid of a priest, nun, brother, or anyone higher up the God chain.it is over.
The chances of legal accountability of the perpetrators are zero.
@Tony Daly: Yes, you can tell by the way that the ‘sinful’ fathers-to-be were locked up, humiliated and beaten until they were able to provide for their natural child. Oh, wait.
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