Pope evokes Gazans facing harsh winter conditions in first Christmas blessing

ISTANBUL

Delivering his first Christmas Mass address from St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV evoked the plight of Gazans facing weeks of harsh winter conditions, alongside refugees and displaced persons worldwide.

"Since the Word was made flesh, humanity now speaks crying out with God's own desire to encounter us. The Word has pitched His fragile tent among us. How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed to weeks of rain, and wind, and cold?" Pope Leo said.

Israel killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza and destroyed the enclave during its two-year war. A ceasefire was agreed upon in October but Israeli violations have continued unabated.

Winter storms have worsened the already dire conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza.

Cold winds and rain are sweeping through overcrowded camps with temporary shelters. People are living in makeshift tents, with no heating, electricity or privacy.

According to the Gaza government media office, more than 400 Palestinians have since been killed and over a thousand others injured in Israeli attacks.

He also drew attention to similar hardships faced by other refugees and displaced persons on every continent as well as homeless people living under "makeshift shelters."

"Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations tried by so many wars ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds," the pontiff said.

He cited the fragility of human life among young people forced to take up arms, saying those on the front lines “feel the senselessness of what is asked of them and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths.”

“Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people's lives and know the power of tenderness,” the pope said.

In his Christmas Urbi et Orbi message, which means to the city and the world in Latin, the pope renewed his call for peace, dialogue, and responsibility, according to Vatican News.

He prayed for “justice, peace, and stability for Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Syria," urging a renewal of peace grounded in "righteousness."

The pontiff also called for “the clamor of weapons to cease” in Ukraine and urged the international community to find the courage to engage in “sincere, direct and respectful dialogue.”

He voiced solidarity with victims of war and violence in Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and with all those suffering from injustice, instability, persecution and terrorism.

Pope Leo also prayed for the restoration of the "ancient friendship" between Thailand and Cambodia.