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Pope Francis Calls for Fraternity in Christmas Day Address

By Francesca Paris
National Public Radio
December 25, 2018

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/25/680046224/pope-francis-calls-for-fraternity-in-christmas-day-address

Pope Francis delivers his Christmas Day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Tuesday.

Delivering his Christmas Day address to tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope Francis appealed for fraternity and peace, especially in violent conflicts around the world.

The pope emerged on the balcony of the nearly 400-year-old St. Peter's Basilica to cheers and trumpets.

"We are all brothers," he said. "Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness."

It was a message of compassion and unity, delivered at a time of rising nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe.

In his "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the City and to the World") address, Francis urged the embrace of fraternity in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the wars in Syria and Yemen, the "clash of arms" in Africa and the conflicts in Korea and Ukraine.

The first Latin American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church also offered prayers for two Central and South American countries, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

 

 

 

 

 




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