He urged Israelis and Palestinians to set aside hate and revenge and “write a new page of history.”
He also lamented that in Nigeria “fundamentalist terrorism exploits even children,” a reference to child suicide-bombers, and he decried conflicts and tensions in Africa, eastern Ukraine, Myanmar, the Korean peninsula, Colombia and Venezuela.
Tens of thousands of faithful entering St. Peter’s Square endured long lines for security checks. Security was heightened in the wake of last week’s Berlin Christmas market attack and the shooting death of the suspect by police in Milan, Italy, on Friday.
On Saturday night, Pope Francis celebrated a somber Christmas Eve Mass in a packed St. Peter’s Basilica. He urged Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus by thinking about the plight of today’s children, expressing dismay at the fate of those living in war zones, “hiding underground to escape bombardment, on the pavements of a large city, at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants.”
“Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the children who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, by those who do have not toys in their hands, but rather weapons,” he added.
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