In front of thousands of people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, Francis directly mentioned the conflict in Ukraine and called for “the courage to open the door to negotiations”. From the balcony of St. Peter’s Cathedral, he declared: “Let the sound of weapons stop in war-torn Ukraine!” He also called for “gestures of dialogue and meeting in order to achieve a just and lasting peace.”
This year František became the target of criticism from Ukrainian representatives when he said that the country should have the courage to “raise the white flag” and negotiate with Russia to end the war. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi previously refused to return to the pre-war borders, but since the election of Donald Trump as US president, he has shown a greater willingness to negotiate, writes Reuters.
The 88-year-old Francis, who is celebrating the twelfth Christmas of his pontificate, also called for an end to other conflicts, whether political, social or military, in Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti.
Recently, the Pope has been increasingly critical of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which he described as “cruelty” at the weekend. Today, he again called for a truce between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas and for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by this terrorist group. At the same time, he described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as extremely serious and called for “the door to dialogue and peace to be opened wide”.
In the manger in the Vatican, Baby Jesus was lying on a Palestinian scarf
Europe
