Pope Francis ushered in Christmas on Wednesday for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics with a message of unconditional love, saying “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us.”
“You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you,” the pontiff told crowds gathered at the Vatican for his Christmas Eve midnight mass.
The Argentinian, who has this year moved to combat silence surrounding paedophilia in the Roman Catholic church, also emphasised “unconditional” love.
Thousands of reports of sexual abuse by priests around the world and accusations of cover-ups by senior clergy further damaged the church’s reputation in 2019.
Pope Francis will at noon on Wednesday give the traditional Christmas Day mass – his seventh – addressed to the world in front of St Peter’s Square.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians and foreigners converged in the biblical town of Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, in the occupied West Bank.
Hundreds of worshippers gathered in the church at the site of Jesus’s birth for midnight mass, attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hundreds more gathered outside, watching on screens in the crisp air.
Source : Aljazeera
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